Minus One
by SorenLovesHolly
Summary: At first I was nothing more than a sophomore boy, an invisible child, with an awful life. But when I chose to end it, I was given another chance for happiness. rated M mostly due to content for more mature readers
1. Chapter 1

**Minus One**

**Chapter 1**

Being a sophomore means being invisible. Freshmen are brand new, and so, you notice them. Juniors and seniors you know long enough to remember them. I'm a sophomore, and I'm invisible. My younger sister is a freshman, but she is known by nearly everyone. Her popularity shines. My older brothers are twins, seniors, and Jocks. One is a track star, the other, the varsity quarter back. How am I invisible when I have super popular siblings? They hate me. When I'm in the same room as them they don't acknowledge me, and at home they take it out. I don't fit in at all. I'm too weak to be jock, too poor to be prep, too stupid to be geek, and too lame to fit in with all the other losers like me.

I have no friends. The only release I have is to draw. Emotion comes loose, as tears of sadness and anger emerge from pencil onto paper. It is the only help I have. They are loved by everyone. I knew this because all of them had a Pokémon but me. Mary had a Glameow, which I thought was ironic, because eventually it would become a fat, ugly beast. Tyler had an Arcanine, one of the Pokémon I thought were most used by douche bags everywhere. Michael had a Carvanha, which sort of matched him, because he would just strike randomly, and he didn't have feelings.

My parents just don't care. As if they are home long enough to care. My mother is always away on business, and my father goes and spends all her money at the bar. She never sees me, and he sees me as a disappointment. I often remember my drunken father asking me why I wasn't popular like Mary, or athletic like Tyler or Michael. Whenever it happened, I would go to my dark room and draw, just letting the pain roll off me. Who knew it would collect?

I sat alone at my lunch table. All that lay in front of me was a small sandwich I had packed for myself. I shifted my gaze from it, and scanned the room. It was loud, and quite fussy in the cafeteria. I picked out Tyler and Michael making asses of themselves in the corner with the Jocks, and I saw Mary re-applying make-up in her corner of popular people.

I sighed and looked back at my sandwich. It hadn't moved from its lonely spot on the table. Gingerly, I picked it up, and took a bite. It was bland, tasteless, and dry. I chewed it, swallowed, and set the remaining sandwich back on the table. I looked up at the table of average people. There was a girl sitting with her group of friends there. She had long brown hair, fair skin, and pretty blue eyes. Her name was Lilly Hafren, and like all other people, didn't know I existed. I had a crush on her for a long time, and I knew that she would just be that. A crush. Not a friend, not an admirer, and definitely not a girlfriend. I sighed again as the bell rang, and I threw my barely scraped lunch away.

The day dragged on slowly. I sat in the shadows of my classes, listening to the drones hum away their useless knowledge. Even the teachers didn't notice the invisibles like me.

Cherrygrove City didn't get high traffic and I thanked it for this. It meant that I didn't have to wait in the car with my three siblings as long. Along with all the geeks and losers, I was a victim of bullying from all three of them. Mary hurt my feelings, Michael humiliated me, and Tyler left bruises on my skin, and awful memories in my mind.

One time when I was five and when Mary had barely learned to talk, Tyler tricked me into going to one of the deep ditches in the park. When we got there, he pushed me into the six foot deep ditch. It was more like a giant hole that the town dug to fill up with rainwater and to keep the park from flooding.

Once he pushed me into the hole, he laughed, and then walked away. It was five hours later when my preschool teacher finally called my mother to ask where I was, another two hours to find me, and twenty minutes to get me out of the hole safely. And to make matters worse, they scolded me for playing in the hole and missing school. The memory burned in my mind. That was when I knew my brother hated me.

We pulled up to our house a few minutes later. I grabbed my backpack and got out of the car last, waiting for my brothers to leave the car first so I wouldn't have to endure something from them. I walked in slowly, dropping my bag on the floor. Tyler was in the living room with his Arcanine. This situation was one I'd like to avoid. His Arcanine was aggressive and ruthless like Tyler, it did whatever he said, and I was usually one who didn't benefit from it. I avoided them, and went up to my room. The walls were painted black, and the window was covered up to stop the light from getting in.

I went over to my desk, and sat down. My sketchbooks were laying on it, several had been filled completely with arts, most of which were of sadness or depression. I opened my most recent book, and flipped to a new page. I gently picked up my pencil, and laid the tip on the crisp white page. I swerved it, and swiftly brought it along the page, letting my day of pain glide down my hands and onto the paper. I shaded parts, lightened others, and eventually, I had a page of lines, whites, grays and blacks merged beautifully on the sheet. I closed the book, feeling better. A sigh escaped me again, and I quietly went downstairs.

The TV was on, blaring football into the living room. I tried to ignore the brainless meatheads run across the grass field. It took fourteen steps to get from the stairs to the kitchen, all of which went uninterrupted. I let out a small breath when I got in, and I pulled a can of soup from the pantry. It made a watery plop into the bowl I poured it in, and I stuck it in the microwave. Mary's Glameow gazed at me from the kitchen table. I looked at her, then went back to watching my soup turn around in the microwave. The Glameow leapt majestically from the table, and strolled out of the kitchen. I ignored her.

A few seconds later, Tyler's Arcanine trotted into the kitchen and sat down behind me. Just as the microwave ringed, Tyler came in, pushed me out of the way, and took the soup from the microwave. "Hey, I made that for me." I said to him.

"So?" He said to me. "What are _you_ going to do about it?"

He walked out of the kitchen, his Arcanine followed. I sighed again, and stood alone in the kitchen, drowning in my loneliness. I shuffled to my room, not looking at the couch. My door was left open slightly, and could hear people inside.

"Oh my god, what _is_ this? Some sort of scribble?" I made that out to be Michael's voice.

"No, it's his gay lover. What a retard." I made this out to be Mary.

"Maybe it's his _feelings_." They all laughed and I walked in.

"What are you doing?" I asked softly.

"Looking at your gay little drawings here." Michael said flatly.

"God, these suck." Mary said, flipping the pages in it. I felt a lump begin its way into my throat. Tyler looked at all of the books, and then to his Arcanine. He laughed, and picked them all up. "Well, since the world doesn't need to see this trash, Arcanine, do us the honest favor of burning these." Tyler tossed them in the air, and a flamethrower escaped the Arcanine's mouth. I saw in the split seconds as the pages turn to ash. They sprinkled to the floor, and Michael chuckled. "You have such a good pet, Tyler."

"I know." He said, looking at the pile of ash with a grin. All four of them walked past me and out my door, each of whom I heard say, "What a loser." The door slammed behind me.

I stared at the ash on the floor. The years of emotion held within each of them slowly began to flood back into me. An overload of sadness, anger, despair and pain enveloped me, and tears rolled down my cheeks, landing with hard plits on the carpet. I silently stood there crying for a very long time. When the front door didn't open at eleven o'clock that night, I knew that my father was just going to end up falling asleep at some public bench or something.

I heard my siblings go to bed, and yet another hour rolled by me. My eyes hurt from all the tears they had produced, and I couldn't breathe out my nose. I let out a slight breath. I knew that moment what I was. Invisible. Invisible, and useless. I looked up at my ceiling light, it was off, and the fan remained motionless.

Silently, I went downstairs through the dark. The kitchen was as cold as it was dark. I walked over to the knife block, and pulled three sharp steak knives from it. I took them out to the living room, and pulled the pictures of Tyler in his Football jersey, Michael in his Track jersey, and Mary's school picture off the wall. I pulled the photo from each of their frames, and took them too my room. I set the knives and pictures on my now empty desk, and pulled the jar of burgundy paint off my desk. I dipped my fingers in it, and on my wall, wrote, "Try running from this."

Once finished, I splashed the rest of the paint all over my room. The rest of my walls were splattered with paint, along with the window, ceiling, carpet, and desk. Once done, I took Tyler's picture and put it on the wall, under the words I wrote. I took one of the knives, and with a thunk, stabbed it through the picture into the wall, leaving it there. I did the same with the other two pictures, and then went to my closet. I took a long tie from the back of it, and brought it over to my desk. I pulled the chair from it, and dragged it under my ceiling fan. I made the tie into a noose, and put it around my neck.

I paused for a moment, but quickly got over the thought. I stepped up onto the chair, and tied the other end of the tie to the fan. I took a deep breath, and kicked the chair over. Instantly, a sharp pain screamed from my neck, and I struggled for a moment, trying to get the noose off me. But it had been done.

I was in a black place. The darkness felt like a home to me, and I inhaled deeply. But as I did, my neck let out a jolting pain. That was when I remembered what happened. I had killed myself. My hand flew to my burning neck, and I started to panic. The darkness was no longer my friend, and the cold, pain, and sadness returned.

I stared at what I thought was the floor, and a tear rolled down my cheek. I felt something wipe it from my face. I looked up to see a floating pink cat thing. Mew. I wanted to speak, but my voice was gone. She giggled, and I heard her voice. _Young one, you cannot speak here. You are nothing more than a lost soul._ I looked around. I was certainly lost. _Yes, you certainly are. Your spirit never did find its way to the gates of the afterlife. You are what they call a ghost right now._

I blinked, then looked around again. This is what ghosts were? Stuck in a void of blackness and sadness? I stared at my feet. I guess this is what I deserve for being selfish. Mew's paw lifted my face up to hers. _You can see why ghosts can haunt, can't you? Just like you, they wander in this void, being stuck in only their place of death._

I nodded. _Well, young one, I can give you two choices. One, you can stay here, and be a ghost forever, or, I can give you the path of another life, with all your memories and experiences in tact._

I stared at her in sad, disbelief. Another life? Another chance? It was an opportunity too great to pass up! But, I looked away; it was also too selfish a choice. I chose to take my own life, why have another chance to screw up and destroy? Mew held my face to hers again. _Young one, you had been alone and sad for too long. I see your pain. You thought the world would be better off without an invisible child, and you didn't want to live with the pain any more. You deserve another chance at happiness. Everyone does…_

And with that, my environment changed again. The cold and the pain in my neck disappeared, and the sadness lifted slightly, but it still existed. The darkness also existed, but at least it was nice and warm here. But I had a weird feeling of stir craziness in the back of my mind. For some reason, I didn't want to be here. I felt around me. I was in some sort of pod. The walls were hard like rocks. I knocked on it. From the other side, I heard excited talking. The words were too muffled to hear, though. I knocked again, and this time, a knock came back. It echoed all throughout the pod, and it rung in my ears. But that was strange, how were my ears on top of my head?

I heard more talking from the other side, and it sounded anxious and slightly angry. Deciding to end the squabble myself, I pounded the wall as hard as I possibly could, but nothing happened. I continued the pounding for a while. Finally, a crack echoed throughout the pod, and I got excited. It was tiring, but I smacked a hole straight through it. I pushed at it with my feet, and instantly, I spilled out into an extremely bright, cold place. I shielded my eyes, but before I could, I heard yelling, and it hurt my ears, which I still didn't know why were on top of my head. Before I knew it, I was being wrapped in something warm and dry.

My eyes had finally adjusted to the light, and I blinked. Staring back at me was Lilly. She was smiling at me. "Lilly? Ohmigosh, Lilly! I just had the worst time of my life!"

"You are just so cuuute!"

"Excuse me?"

"Yes you are! Yes you are! You are such a little cutie!"

"Calm yourself, Lilly; I'm not that cute…" I blushed slightly.

She held me up in the air, and dangled me above her. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed it, but since when was I this small to be lifted above her? I heard someone else talking. "Lilly! Stop hogging him! I wanna see him!"

"See me?" I asked. But Lilly piped up. "No, Vanessa, he's MINE. Mom and Dad got him for me."

"MOM!" Lilly's little sister Vanessa yelled. "Lilly won't let me see her new Pokémon!!!!"

Pokémon? I heard her mother yell. "Lilly, just let her SEE him."

Lilly huffed, and then handed me to Vanessa. She stared at me with her big, watery, blue eyes. "Aww, what a cute little Minun!" She said cutely. I blinked, dumbstruck. A Minun? A _Minun_? Of all the Pokémon in all the world, I was a _**Minun**_?! I cursed at Mew for this, but it subsided when Vanessa held me above her head and dangled me inches above her face. I had to admit, I loved it.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It was weird, being a Pokémon. I could smell much more than I would as a human. I actually recognized the brand of deodorant Lily used. Of course, that sort of gives me the feeling I'm a mega stalker, but, I'm not going to milk it. Well, I MIGHT, but that's only if Lily feels comfortable stripping in front of her Pokémon. Have you ever wondered why they go so silent when you did that?

I could also hear everything, and by everything, I mean, EVERYTHING, the vents blowing warm air, the baking of breakfast foods, even the steady hum of the refrigerator. It was also weird to be only a foot tall, give or take a few inches. I didn't have recognizable legs, just feet, so balance became difficult. Also, I had the strangest feeling of having a loose volt running in me. I wanted a battery so I could see if I could make the other side blow off. That would be funny.

Lily still had me wrapped snugly in a plush blanket, and I was sitting on her lap. The kitchen table had a nice oaken finish, although the dent marks in it made it look like pine. It also reeked of the finish paint. I looked up, at Lily's face. She was talking to her father, who was sipping black coffee and reading a newspaper. "Dad, is it ok if I take Maggie to school?"

"Who is Maggie?" He asked, giving her a funny look over his paper.

"Him." She said, pointing at me.

"_**WHAT?!?!**_" I screamed. "I'm a fucking BOY! Don't give me a fucking GIRLS name!!!"

"Obviously he doesn't like his name." Lily's father said, pointing out my obvious, violent cursing and squirming.

"It's short for Magnus, dad. You know, like a nick-name?"

"It still is a stupid shorter version! Couldn't you find me a better name?!"

"He's so cute when he's angry." Lily said, tickling the back of my ears.

"Oh, WOOOoooow…." I said slowly, enjoying the tickling.

Lily's mother set a plate of waffles in front of Lily, and I eye-balled it feverishly. The scent of strawberry syrup being drizzled in front of me was too tempting. I crooned my head forward, trying to get closer to the gourmet topping.

"Is he hungry?" Vanessa asked over her half-eaten waffles. I had to admit, between the five-year old and her father, captain obvious was striking often.

"I'll bet. Do you want some waffle, Maggie?" Lily said cutely.

"If you call me that again I swear I'll pump you with as many volts I can muster, but yes, I do."

She pulled a small piece from her waffle, and I ate it hungrily. Another curse, and somewhat a benefit, of being this small was my tinier stomach. I was full from the piece she gave me, it was weird.

Once the waffles were eaten, and after a small chime of the old grandfather clock, Lily got up, and walked over to the bar chairs next to the kitchen island counters. She pulled her backpack from one, and was about to walk out the door with me when her mother called, "You can't take him to school, Lily!"

She turned, and said, "But mom, he needs me! Besides, you know that I hate Wednesdays. He can cheer me up!"

Wednesday? It was Wednesday? I died late on a Tuesday… Did that mean I died only last night? I expected much more time to have passed… But then again, it would have been much longer to have put me into this body. My head was spinning, before I was being stuffed into a backpack. "Lily, what the hell are you doing?" I asked in a snide way.

"Quiet, Maggie! I can't sneak you to school if you aren't quiet!"

"You dirty little smuggler! You know that's an automatic detention if you're caught! And I told you to stop calling me that."

"Shh!!" she shoved me deeper into the bag, and zipped it up.

I figured she was walking out to the bus stop, because I was being bounced up and down, and the air outside the backpack got much more frigid. The fragrant smell of century old textbook was wavering, and I tried to turn my head to face the zipper to get more fresh air.

Bad choice.

A gust of freezing wind decided to fly by at that moment, only to blast on my wet nose. I yelped, and buried my nose in the plush blanket. Unfortunately, we were at the bus stop, and I heard other people talking outside about the sudden yelp from Lily's backpack.

"What was that?"

"I heard it come from Lily's bag."

"It was just a quick jump from the breeze, is all, uh, nothing else." I heard Lily say quickly.

"Nice save," I muttered to myself.

I heard the bus roar up next to the sidewalk, and Lily quickly stumbled on. I was plopped onto what felt like a hard leather seat, and I put up a fuss. It must have looked awfully funny to look at a squirming backpack. Lily quickly set the backpack up straight, and I stopped fussing. Slowly, Lilly unzipped the bag, and peered in at me.

"Maggie, please be quiet! Its hard to cover up a squirming backpack!"

"Lily, why are you talking to your bag?" I heard someone behind her say. Lily quickly zipped up the bag, and said, "I wasn't talking to my bag! You're just crazy."

"But, you were just talk-"

"No I wasn't! You were just imagining it." Lily said quickly.

The other person must have been stupid, because I heard them say, "Whatever you say, Lily."

The day stuffed in a backpack sucked. Not only did I get bumped too much, I was dropped, smacked, and beaten senseless by a math book. At lunch, Lily pulled me out slowly, and set me in her lap with all her friends. I took this opportunity to breathe in the aroma of hot French fries. Mmmmm.

"Isn't he cute? He just hatched this morning."

"Aww, how adorable!"

"Now I want one."

"Can I pet him?"

"Sure, but be gentle, he had to ride in a backpack all day." One of Lily's friends petted me behind the ears, and I enjoyed it. I barely noticed one of the girls at the table say, "Hey, where's that kid who usually sits alone at that one table? He's not here today."

"I don't know."

"Me neither."

I knew who they were talking about. I sighed, that shadow would never again show up to darken that table. That reminded me. I squirmed out of Lily's lap, and scampered across the floor unnoticed. She panicked, and looked around nervously, and I heard her friends whispering worriedly. I slyly found my way under Mary's table, and I listened in on their conversation. Mary talked with them in her normal tone, as if nothing had happened. This made me a bit angry. How could you not get even SLIGHTLY sad if your brother died? I scampered out of that side of the cafeteria, and went over to the jock side. I slipped between tables, and planted myself under Tyler and Michael. Neither of them sounded different either.

This was infuriating. How could these people have no feelings? Obviously they didn't exist in assholes like my family. I spied two things. One, an electrical outlet near Tyler's ankle, and a Pokéball on his belt. Slowly, I reached a paw up and pulled the Pokéball off of it. I stuffed the tiny red and white ball into my cheeks, (which had a very large capacity) and I pulled the plug from the outlet.

When I was sure nobody had noticed the plug out, I tried to put as much electricity into the wire as possible. I noticed the two prongs had turned into lightning rods, and in an instant, shoved it onto Tyler's bare ankle.

I heard him scream extremely loud, and instantly, I pounced off, scampering as fast as I could back to Lily. I spat the Pokéball into my blanket in her bag, and returned to her lap. Everyone had noticed Tyler's loud little girl scream, and were all staring at him in silence. A Low murmur echoed over the crowd, and I saw him staring at the socket. Michael stood up. "It was just a loose socket that shocked him, everyone. It must have freaking hurt."

A low laugh started from the jocks, and everyone returned to their previous conversations. Lily and her friends stared at me. Lily let out a tiny whisper, "Did you do that, Magnus?"

I nodded, then shot an evil glare toward both Tyler and Michael.

"Dude, give him a piece of your chocolate bar."

"Why?"

"Did you just see that? Not only did he just electrocute the crap out of that asshole, he humiliated him in front of everyone as well! Do you know how much I would like to do that?"

"Same."

"Yeah, I would too."

I got a yummy piece of chocolate that day.

***

***

***

Later that evening, when Lily got home and I was alone, I took the Pokéball from my plush blanket. I stared at it for a very long time, trying to remember how Tyler used it. While it was in its small form, it would only store a Pokémon for use on their belt. When it was large, you could throw it, and release a Pokémon. Obviously Tyler's Arcanine was in this. I glanced around, and then dashed out to their back yard. When I was sure I was completely alone, I stared at the Pokéball again.

Gingerly, I pressed the small button on it. Immediately, the ball got bigger. I smiled slightly, and tossed it. A pink crooked flash came from it, and Tyler's Arcanine appeared in front of me. He looked around, startled by the new place without Tyler. He noticed me, and then growled. "Ok, little shit, SPILL IT! Where am I?"

I backed up slightly. "You don't recognize me?"

"Why should I?" He snarled.

"Well, because it's me, James."

"Do you think I'm stupid? You aren't my master's baby brother."

"He called me that?"

"No, I called him that, and YOU aren't him. I'm not stupid."

"Well, your IQ drops when you are near that stupid shithead."

The Arcanine growled. "Don't you DARE call my master stupid."

"I have every right to, he's the asshole who made you burn my journals. HE'S the asshole who made me feel pain every night of my life; **HE'S** THE ONE WHO MADE ME COMMIT SUICIDE!!!!!!!!!" I screamed at him, sparks flying from my palms and cheeks. The Arcanine backed up slightly.

"Mary found James dead this morning…"

"I fucking hung myself in my room! Burgundy paint splattered on everything! All their faces were stabbed through the wall with knives! They can't run from my death! NOBODY CAN!" I yelled at him. "I'll bet all they did was LAUGH at my body, and then call my writing stupid!"

The Arcanine looked away sheepishly. I continued shouting at him. "And you HELPED! How did you NOT realize the pain you put me through, you jackass!? For YEARS you tortured me with Tyler, and all the while you enjoyed it, didn't you?!"

"I-"

"SHUT UP!"

The Arcanine shut his mouth, in fear of the little Minun in front of him.

"Do you know how much pain and suffering I had in my life? Do you know how many tears I had shed? How many times my humiliation killed me, and how my own family inflicted sadness upon me?! Of course not! YOU were loved! YOU had attention! YOU STILL HAVE YOUR FUCKING LIFE!!!!!!!!" Even more sparks exploded from me, showering the Arcanine in front of me. "All I had were my drawings! That's it! They were my only attention, and you turned them into nothing more than a pile of ash!"

"Look, I-"

"Do you not even have a SOUL?!?!"

This time the Arcanine yelled at me. "I HATED IT!!!"

I looked up at him in surprise. "What?"

"I HATED IT. You think I enjoyed it, but I DID have a soul, it was your brother that didn't!"

"Then why did you go along?!"

"I didn't have a choice! It is impossible to disobey your trainer!"

The sparks subsided, and I sat there in the grass with him. I looked at him, and then slowly said, "Go home, Arcanine… Just, go."

He stood slowly, and then looked at me. "I'm sorry, James. I had no idea…"

"LEAVE!" I bellowed.

The Arcanine grabbed his Pokéball in his mouth, gave me a final look, and then ran off into the night. I sighed. Yet another sad day for me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

I was starting to get myself together. My tears subsided a long time ago, but it was hard to get myself back up. I looked up, and saw a Pokémon on the fence at the very back of the yard. I slipped on my belly, and snuck closer to it. A closer look found me a Plusle; she was sitting on the fence, and was waving her legs.

She hadn't yet noticed me, and I was about to leave, when she closed her eyes, and took a deep breath.

"_I just want you close,_

_Where you can stay forever._

_You can be sure,_

_That it will only get better._

"_You and me together_

_Through the days and nights,_

_I don't worry 'cause,_

_Everything's gonna be all right._

_People keep talkin',_

_They can say what they'd like,_

_But all I know is,_

_Everything's gonna be all right…"_

She opened her eyes ever so slightly, and saw me. Immediately they widened in shock, and she gasped.

"Wait!" I yelled, but she fell off the fence and ran off. "Wait!" I yelled again. I squished through the fence cracks, and quickly pursued.

She was quick. I always hated running, I was about to vomit my lungs. But somehow I kept my breath. The Plusle scampered down the sidewalk, and skidded a corner. I tumbled around it, and continued the chase. Just as I was getting closer, she instantly zoomed to her right. This caught me off guard, and I tumbled head over heels. I caught sight of a flash of red, and bolted toward it.

She glanced behind her, panicked, and then scampered underneath a house deck. I followed.

It was dark. But I followed the sritching noise in front of me. I saw daylight again, and jumped out into it, only to find myself standing in the middle of a garden party. Immediately, a woman screamed at the sight of me, and I took this as a cue to get the fuck outta there.

I turned and pounded back under the house. I heard people yelling back out of the hole, and I saw feet moving around both exits. Fuck. I was cornered. I sat down, and pouted.

There was a tap on my shoulder. I spun around, to see a Spinarak staring back at me. I gulped. "Yes?" I said in a shaky voice.

"My daddy's gonna eat you!" He said in a tiny voice.

You know that stupid panicked scream from the cartoons? You know, the one where the character's eyes go huge and their mouth gets so big you die laughing? I'm not laughing, cuz that's what I did.

I shot out from under the house, lightning fast, and toppled four people on my way out. I dove down the street, screaming the whole way. I ran around every obstacle I saw, remembering that Ariados track their prey back to their friends through a long silk string.

Whenever I saw a pond, I swam through it. Whenever there was a sprinkler, I jumped around it. I went under several driveway bridges, over a hedge, and around a rain gutter. I looked around my body, and then realized it. There was absolutely no string attached to me. I puked in frustration. God I hated running. I fell backward on the grass.

"You gonna eat that?" I glanced up. A Houndour was looking excitedly at the vomit I left on his lawn. I glanced at it. "No."

He glanced from me to it. "Can I?"

"I'd not, but you certainly can."

"WOOOO!!!!" He yelled.

Stomach churning, I scrambled away from the fire-dog. I looked around. Wow, was I utterly lost. I sighed all I could remember was the front of her house, and I knew I didn't leave her neighborhood. Great. This could be a while…

I silently shuffled through down the street, trying to remember the way the Plusle led me, then my blind screaming rampage. Every so often I would see a dog Pokémon in a yard, and they usually barked, growled, or asked if I ate anything tasty lately.

I sighed. What did I get myself into? I didn't care that I was lost, nor that I lost the Plusle, but I thought about all that I had learned in the short amount of time I was a Pokémon.

First, I had huge-ass ears that could hear tons more than I wanted.

Second, Tyler's Arcanine wasn't a dick, but his master was. (but I already figured that)

Third, Plusle are fast.

Fourth, I look delicious to giant spiders.

I sighed again; the irony was getting to me. Weak as a human, weaker as a Pokémon. I sat down on the cold grass, and looked up at the darkening, cloudy sky. A drop hit my nose, and in an instant, millions fell at once, soaking me to the bone, and making me unbearably cold. My ears fell, and another drop escaped my eyes.

What _had_ I gotten myself into? In an instant, the rain stopped, and the colors all around me faded into splotches of gray. I glanced around at the rain. It was stationery in the air around me.

I saw a small flash of yellow, and immediately, Raikou fazed in front of me. I blinked at him. "Hello, little one." He said to me quietly. "Mew told me to keep an eye on you."

"What does that mean?" I sniffed.

Raikou sighed, and sat in the grass next to me. "To be reborn is a great and magnificent blessing, James. Or do you prefer Magnus?" He asked curiously, looking at me with a slight smile.

I blinked. "I might as well get used to it."

"You don't have to forget your past life because you are in a new one, Magnus. In fact, it will come back into play more than you'd think."

I stared at him, tears still silently streaming down my face. "You still didn't answer my question."

Raikou only chuckled. "Mew told me you died from suicide, and thus, you will express sadness in this life more. She told me that the moment you start to feel alone, sad, and unnoticed, is the moment I should come and give you wisdom."

I gave him a pathetic look. He sighed again. "A pep talk, almost."

I looked at my feet. "What's the point? Life is still better with the old me gone."

At this, Raikou stood, and picked me up in his maw. I gave him a worried look, and he chuckled. "I'm a vegetarian, little one. I must show you something."

And like a lightning bolt, we were off. Instantly we were at a hotel. Raikou strolled in casually, ignoring all that were around him. I stared around. Color was back, and people were moving, but it was like we weren't really there. "Can they see us?" I asked quietly.

"No, we are simply revisiting a moment of time we never were in before. Nobody can see us, hear us, or even feel us." He remained silent for a few minutes, and then asked, "I'm surprised you haven't asked where we were yet."

"It's a hotel. The only relevance I have to a hotel is my mother, who travels too much. Obviously we are here for something relating to her."

Raikou blinked. "You're pretty sharp."

"No, just neglected to the point of opening my eyes."

"Worded like a true poet…" He said quietly. Raikou ascended several flights of stairs, and entered a long hallway. He strolled down the hallway, looking at the door numbers. He stopped at one, and walked through the door. The room was completely empty. No suitcase, no briefcase, no evidence of a person being there at all. I looked at Raikou. "Is this a mistake? Nobody's here."

"I know."

He streaked off instantly again, and we were standing outside a house in a town I didn't know.

The front door opened, and I saw my mother, a short, thin woman with long wavy brown hair exiting it. I glanced at Raikou. "Wha-"

My question was soon answered. A man I didn't know came up behind her, and I saw him plant a kiss on her lips. My eyes widened. He spoke. "When can we do this again?

"I'm telling him I'm going to Sinnoh next month. We can plan something out then."

They kissed again, and the scene melted in front of my eyes. I was sitting in the grass again with Raikou, in the gray sunset. "My mother was cheating on my dad?" I choked, remembering the awful scene.

"For a very long time now."

I sighed. I never would have expected that from her.

"I wanted to show you that for a reason, but the reason is yours to figure out. Use your wisdom wisely, young one, I know you'll find the right way to use it."

And with that, he disappeared, and the rain fell back on me. I sighed, and turned. I was sitting in front of Lily's house, getting my ass soaked. I scampered up to the front entryway, and plopped through the doggie door. I shook the water from my fur, and looked around. Lily was sitting alone on the couch, looking depressed. A lone candle was lit on the table in front of her.

I pittered to her, and stared up at her face. Lily's eyes were pink, and a light blue handkerchief was sitting lightly in her hands. She looked down at me. "He's gone, Magnus. Dead, and gone…"

***

***

***

Yeah, short chapter, I know. I just really wanted to get one down. Oh, and by the way, the song the Plusle was singing at the beginning was No One, by Alicia Keys. I do not own it, or operate it or any of that s***, so, yeah, don't sue me or whatever. :P

And a quick thank you to FirebirdXoX for helping me out of that writer's block I was having earlier. Much appreciated!!! :D


	4. Chapter 4

Sorry for the epic lateness for this chapter update. I have a lot of stuff going on at home. And for those who know I'm lying, I just had writer's block and serious procrastination issues. X.x

**Chapter 4**

Over the next few days at Lily's home, I've had lots of stir-crazy stalker sights. Lily didn't trust me enough to hide me in her backpack ever again, so I may not be attending school for a while. I found a pair of binoculars in Lily's parent's room, next to lots of pictures of birds and several other nature lovers' memorabilia. Using them as a tool, I found out that the neighbor across the street was an art dealer and his wife. I admired several paintings (which were I suspected were stolen) being shipped in and out of the house. I also noticed how when his wife left for the gym at noon everyday, he would smuggle a smoke from the carton that he had buried underneath the patch of pink petunias in his front yard.

The neighbor on their left was an elderly couple who mowed their lawn everyday at ten thirty. The pool situated in their back yard was never used at all, yet the old man would always scoop out the leaves that found their way into it. The small pond in the front yard held several Goldeen, and while the old woman enjoyed a Magost berry daiquiri, she would toss bread pellets into the water. I figured they were the creepy old couple from all the movies that would come into my house and kill me.

As for the neighbor's to the right, they were the only ones that had any children Lily's age. (Or my old age) The teenaged boy, (whose name I discovered after I heard his mother shout it at him often) was a snooty rich kid, I remembered seeing him dating my sister for a few days until his popularity fizzled out from under her group. As for his parents, they were the definition of snobs. Any feat you may have shown was never good enough for them, but in all honesty, they would never turn down a compliment on anything you talked about. Whether that be their house, (which was taken care of by minimum waged adults who never had a glimpse of college) their snoot of a son, (who I once spied binge drinking in his hot tub filled with other rich, (and often nude) girls) or of themselves.

Although I stayed hidden inside the house, with my ears aimed outside, or even when I went outside, I could never find the mystery Plusle on the fence post. I figured it would take a while before she would ever show up again.

Vanessa was very peppy as well. Her parents promised her that she could get her ears pierced, even though we all knew that trying to stab a needle through a little girl with ADHD was not going to be pretty. Either way, it happened, and it was the only time I have ever seen Vanessa sit still. That was also the day that Lily took the liberty of reducing my masculinity even more by shoving multiple pairs of clothing and accessories on me at the pet store. I lived through it, and very few sparks went off. I even got the accessory I liked, a shiny golden loop with a small sapphire at the end of it that I had pierced on my left ear. It was shiny. And pretty.

I was sitting on the couch, with a small bottle of lemonade wedged between my stubby legs. Lily had a very good interest in TV shows, for the stuff she watched I actually enjoyed. I took a long swig from my drink, and abruptly had one of the longest burps in my life. I patted my chest and muttered, "Excuse me..."

Lily looked down at me in amusement. "How did you get that from lemonade?"

"It must be the extra sugar." I said stupidly.

Lilly tickled behind my ears and continued watching TV. I took the last drink from the lemonade can, and set it on the coffee table, before bounding up to the window. For a second I thought I heard singing. Quite the opposite. All I saw was a bunch of blue junk that was hidden in some bushes in the back yard. I hadn't seen it before, but I wasn't going to be rude and tell the individual to leave. There was going to be some hospitality in this place, even if it only comes from me.

I yawned, and went to go sit on Lily's lap. I curled up and quickly fell asleep.

~ -.- ~

It was almost five AM. Why does high school need to start so early? WHY IN HELL?! Either way, I was toppled off the bed and I fell flat on my face on the hard carpet. "Ow." I said groggily.

"Sorry, Maggie!" Lily said, picking me up, and tucking me back in her bed.

"Thank you. Now shoo." I said, waving one of my paws at her. She kissed the top of my head and went to her bathroom to shower. I rolled over and continued to snooze. At five thirty, I was lifted up from the bed again, and was carried downstairs being not remotely awake. Lily sat me down in front of a food dish wish some expensive pet food in it. I took one blurry look at it, before falling asleep in it.

Obviously nobody bothered to wake me up and make me eat, because I woke up to the old people mowing their lawn. I pulled the food chunks out of my nose, and ate the clean stuff left in the bowl. Once done with the "exquisite" pet food, I grabbed a lemonade can from the fridge, the binoculars from Lily's bed stand, (which she still hasn't noticed) and jumped out onto the roof. As usual, the old man was halfway done with his front lawn, the people across the street had yet another van moving things in and out of their house. All the nice cars from the family of snobs were gone, and I saw the workers busy fixing up the hedges. I swiveled myself around and took a swig of lemonade. The blue junk was under the bush still. That was strange, I expected them to be gone by now.

But whoever they were, I didn't give a care. I set the binoculars down beside me and enjoyed the lemonade and sunshine for a while.

I heard a crash behind me and I turned. I stifled a laugh as I saw several workers pointing at a window at the snob's house and noticed a rock missing from the pathway. I giggled slightly, and looked at their backyard. The blue orb that usually sat on a pedestal there was gone. That was weird.

I looked back at the old people, and I almost dropped the binoculars, The old woman, (whom I presumed asleep) had her dress all the way up covering her face, and the half-empty daiquiri glass had fallen on its side. There was no breeze, how could that have happened?

Inquisitively, I scanned the sky without my binoculars for anything suspicious. There was nothing. I looked down, and sipped some more of the lemonade.

I sunned myself a little more, unaware of the growing black dot in the skyline behind me.

~ -.- ~

I saw a glint from one of the rooftops. Shiny things were precious to me, they always were. I flapped my overly heavy wings harder, and then pelted at it. I had already distracted the people in the yard with the rock in the window, then I took the shiny blue orb in their backyard. Easy pickings. The old woman two doors over was too tempting to resist, but she really did need to wake up and realize where her dress was.

I was rocketing toward the shiny thing on the roof. I didn't notice the Minun underneath it though. I opened my claws, hoping to just snatch the thing off its ear.

"AAAAUGH!!!!!" I had caught the Minun's earring, but it was pierced through pretty tough. So instead of just ripping his lobe out, I was carrying him through the air by a loop in his ear.

"LET GO OF ME YOU ASSHOLE!!!!!" He screamed, flailing around in the air.

"Give me your earring! It goes in my collection!" I yelled at him, trying to shake him off.

That was definitely not a good choice, for in an instant, a bolt of thunder from the clear sky above struck me. I heard everything sizzle and crack, and before I knew it, we were hurtling toward the earth, at a pace I knew was dangerous. I flapped my wings, but the caked on rock wouldn't do anything. The ground was getting closer, and I instantly thought of my past. The wall in front of me, the flash, and then the darkness. I couldn't allow this to happen to an innocent creature caught up in my affairs.

I grabbed the wailing Minun, and outstretched my wings, trying to catch some sort of draft. It didn't work to well, and in my weakened point, I couldn't fly if I tried. We both smacked into a roof, and then I sailed into the house's yard. I seared through several hard tree branches, and then was impaled in a rose bush. I had no idea what happened to the Minun, but I knew I was bleeding profusely, and my wings wouldn't work. I closed my eyes, and blacked out.

~ -.- ~

My eyes fluttered open weakly. I had barely enough strength to wield that thunder move, but the deliberate face smack into the roof hurt. After that, I had rolled down the roof; fell through a table umbrella, and even through the glass table beneath it. Shards of glass were everywhere, and blood was leaking from my yellow fur. I whimpered. "Raikou… You couldn't help me for this?" I let out a raspy breath, and tried to move my arms. Instantly they stung with pain, and I let out a wail.

Someone from inside the house came to the door to see what all the ruckus was about, but I couldn't get a glimpse of their face.

The screen door opened, and from her voice, (which I couldn't really hear) I figured she was a girl. She came out quickly, and pulled a phone from her pocket. I heard the speaker from the 9-1-1 hotline answer the line. The girl quickly looked around and described what happened. I let out another wail of pain, and she rushed over to me. She felt my fur, and quietly spoke to me. "Don't wor' -one's going to com- -'elp you, Okay? Ha- -on there a li'- -bit more!" My hearing was going, and I was getting woozier. There was a siren echoing in the distance. I let out another raspy breath, and tried to blink the blood from my eyes. The girl who was standing over me looked so familiar somehow. I saw one final vision before the blackness set in.

Mary.

~ -.- ~

My back hurt. My left ear was throbbing. I was in unbearable pain. I was in a hospital bed. Wait, that wasn't right… I was in my old backyard, I was underneath Mary. I wasn't here! Despite my back's urgings, I sat up. The room was large and white, like all hospitals. I noticed in the bed next to me there was the Pidgey that had taken me off my roof. He was stationary, but I knew he was awake. As if noticing my staring, he looked over, and our eyes locked.

I was sitting in a very small room. There was a sink beside me. And in an instant, there was a flash, and then darkness.

I was back on the bed. I blinked several times. "The fuck?" I mumbled.

The Pidgey next to me was blinking as well. He sighed, and then looked up at me. "Why were you reborn?"

I glanced back at him in shock. "Excuse me?"

"When two reborn Pokémon lock views, they see the other's last few moments before they die. Apparently. I have never actually felt it until now…"

He looked down, and then back up to me in a serious look. "So answer my question. Why were you reborn?"

I sighed, and told him my life's story. He nodded, and agreed to certain things. He agreed, disagreed, and said the same thing everyone says. "It isn't as bad as it seems."

"They all say that, but never experience it."

He looked away, before looking back. "We haven't been properly introduced."

"I'll say. Not much of a first impression though, my ear hurts."

He rolled his eyes and limply held up a wing. He abruptly winced and said, "My name's Droop. Weird name, but I didn't give it to myself."

"Ha, I know that. The name's Magnus."

"Nice to meet you, Magnus."

Somehow, I knew this was gonna work in the long run.

~ -.- ~

~ -.- ~

~ -.- ~

Sorry if that was too short, but its like, almost two AM here where I'm at. :P

*yawns* Thank you Delano, for the OC. I greatly appreciated it.

Hope you all have a happy new year!!! 2010 here we come!!! :D


	5. Chapter 5

This is the pace of chapter updates I'm sure we'd all love. But, to be honest, I'm only doing this chapter so I don't forget the subject matter. I used to have a good plot line before I added Droop, but I realized that story was a bit short. I decided to bulk up my story a tad more. Thank you again, Delano! :D

**Chapter 5**

After several hours lying in the Pokécenter bed, they sent Droop and I to one of those magical machines that heal your Pokémon. Why they couldn't make one of those for humans, I have no clue, but they are certainly heavenly.

Unfortunately, neither Droop nor I had tags for a house pet. So we were sent back to the beds. I had suffered several broken ribs, a fracture in my skull, and a broken arm and leg on my left side. Droop had broken his wings, and one of his ribs nearly punctured his lung. I guess he had it worse than me. If a Pokémon wasn't picked up by an owner within three days, the Pokécenter takes custody until the Pokémon is adopted. If they aren't adopted, they send the Pokémon to a safari zone or breeding center. Talk about fates.

I glanced at the clock on the wall. Lily was still at school, so why was Mary home? It wasn't the first time my siblings have skipped, (I was usually detained in my room so I wouldn't snark on them) but wouldn't they have sent her back to school? My ringing curiosity was answered in several minutes. The door opened, and the nurse stepped in. She folded over several papers and then beckoned someone to come in. Mary slowly walked in, looking perfectly calm. She tossed her long blonde hair from her face and smiled at me. That was the first time I have ever seen her smile so warmly. It was a real smile, I could see it in her eyes, but it was somehow not real. It was definitely not the Mary I knew.

"Are you sure nobody has come to pick him up?" Mary asked the nurse.

"No, but he may be a student's. You are supposed to be in school, you know."

"I had to be sure they came through alright."

"I know what you mean." The nurse finished scribbling stuff onto the paper, and tore out a page. She handed it to Mary and said, "If someone comes in and claims them, I'll be sure to notify you. But for now, they are yours." The nurse left the room. And I gulped. Mary was going to own me now?

Mary stared at the door until she knew the nurse was gone, and then turned and looked at me. "You probably don't know this, but being popular has its quirks." Mary came over to my bed and sat on the edge of it.

"I know everything that happens in my school. Gossip and rumors aren't always reliable, but they have more truth than most expect." She let out a small laugh. "I know every relationship between every person in all of the school, I know the news the INSTANT it becomes news, and I know who is doing what, and where."

Curious to what she was getting at, I straightened up slightly.

"I know who you belong to, Magnus." This got my attention. My ears perked up, and my cheeks burned slightly. Mary giggled, and tickled behind my ears.

"Lily Hafren, sophomore. Currently dating nobody, apparently is still a virgin, and hasn't had a drink once before. Am I correct?"

I gave her an amazed look, and nodded slightly.

"As I said before, being popular has its quirks." At this, she rose, pulled me from the blankets, and snuggled me close to her. The first hug I ever got from her.

I enjoyed being in her arms. I don't know why, but I did. My eyes burned slightly, and I tried to blink the tears from my eyes. I faked a yawn, and Mary held me out in front of her. "You poor thing. I'll bet you're tired."

I nodded, and faked another yawn. Mary stared at Droop. "I know that he doesn't belong to Lily, however."

Droop gave me a pathetic look, and I started to complain. Mary rolled her eyes, then picked up Droop. "Alright then, I guess I'll have to drop this guy off with you."

~ -.- ~

Mary set me on the sidewalk outside Lily's house. She planted a final kiss on top of my head, and then got back in Tyler's car. It drove off, leaving Droop and me on the street. I shook my fur, and turned to look at Lily's house. "This is the second time I have been dumped off here. It's like the starting point for a new chapter or something." I said solemnly.

*crickets*

"Do you find it ironic that I kept my stash in this yard?" Droop asked me.

"Uh, excuse me?" I said stupidly, looking at him.

"I put my stuff under a bush in this house's backyard."

"Is that what all that blue junk was under Lily's hydrangeas?"

"You could see it?!" Droop asked, panicked.

"Well, it wasn't hidden entirely…" I said faintly.

"Shit!" Droop shouted.

"What? It's only some junk…" I said, rubbing the back of my head.

Droop gave me a serious look. "Trust me, it could attract some ugly stuff."

"What the fuck do you have in there?!" I half yelled at him.

Droop didn't pay attention to me, and he jumped into the air. "Come on! You have to help me hide it!" he yelled down at me.

I rolled my eyes, and ran into the backyard behind him.

The collection was unharmed, and untouched. I rummaged through it. Everything was blue, and most things were shiny. I pulled out a heavy necklace with a large blue gem at the end of it. "Wow. This is some sapphire." I said admirably.

"Actually, it's a very rare diamond. I like the heart shape it has."

"Same here. What's it called?"

"I have no idea. I just stole it off some broad on a cruise ship." (xD)

"You STOLE this?!" I yelped, dropping the necklace like it was venomous.

"Well, yeah. None of this is really mine." Droop said, picking through the things.

I stared at the pile of junk. "You said this could attract some ugly stuff. What exactly did you mean by that?"

Droop blushed slightly. "You know how I tried to take the earring off your ear? Well that was one of my unsuccessful attempts to snatch something. Lets just leave it at you are not my first hit and run…"

I covered my face with my hands. "I swear, if anything comes to this house…"

"They won't! They won't!" Droop reassured me. "You know, as long as we hide it. Better at least."

I gave him a bitter look, and pointed my paw at his face. I looked back at the junk. "Do you have some sort of bag to keep this in or something?"

"Yup." Droop said happily. He jumped further into the bush, and pulled a large leather bag over the stuff. He then tightened the leather string around the bag. "That should do it. Now, where do we hide it?"

I glanced around. I couldn't exactly dig very far into the ground, so that choice was out. I turned, and saw Lily's open window. An Idea popped into my head at that moment. "Give me a minute!" I said to Droop, and I ran into the house. Nobody was home yet, thank goodness. I ran up to Lily's room, and jumped up to the windowsill. I looked down at Droop and shouted, "Up here!"

Droop looked up, and his eyes widened. "You want me to hide my stuff inside?!"

"Do you have a better choice? Besides, Lily doesn't clean her room at all; it should be safe until she moves out." I laughed. "And if you decide you must add more to your little, 'collection', you always have me." I said to him.

Droop contemplated this. "Fine. Back up."

I jumped down from the windowsill, and I heard grunting from outside. After several minutes, I got impatient, and jumped back up to the windowsill. "Is it that heavy? I asked him.

Droop was struggling to move the bag. "It must have sunk into the mud beneath the bush."

I slapped my hand to my head, dragged it down slowly, and then went back outside to help. "Okay, all we're going to do is stuff it through the doggy door and drag it up to Lily's room."

"Alright." He said reluctantly.

Over the course of an hour, we dragged it across the lawn and managed to stuff it through the door.

I sat down on the floor, exhausted. "Shit, how much heavy crap do you have in there?" I asked him.

"I have no clue." He panted.

"Ready to drag it upstairs?"

"No, but I guess we have to."

"Lily's little sister Vanessa gets home with her mother then. Trust me, their mother is a neat-freak, you don't want to be here when she shows up. A wild Pokémon in her house is going to need much more than a Pokécenter to heal."

With slightly higher adrenaline, we yanked, dragged, and pushed it up all the stairs. I glanced at the clock in the hallway. We had exactly fifteen minutes to hide the bag.

"Come on, we have to get this in her room NOW!" I yelled at Droop. His eyes widened in panic, and we rolled the sack into Lily's room as fast as we could. As we were shoving it under the bed, I heard the front door open. Droop looked worriedly at me, and I pushed the bag underneath the bed. I jumped up to the window only to see that I had closed it before I tried to assist Droop. "Fuck!" I muttered. Droop glanced worriedly from me to the door. Footsteps were echoing up the hallway. In a matter of split seconds, I dove, hit the ground, and dove one more time. I smacked into Droop, and we both flew underneath the bed. The footsteps got closer to the door, and then stopped.

"I thought I told Lily to shut her door…" I heard her mother mutter. The door closed, and she walked away. Droop and I let out a long breath. "Just barely…" I said exasperatedly.

"Just barely… Now," Droop said, sitting up. "How do I get out of here?"

I gulped. I couldn't possibly open the window without Lily's help, and outside the door awaited certain doom. I glanced at Droop. "Do you think you can wait until Lily gets home from school?"

"When's that?"

"About two hours."

Droop gave me a worried look. "I gotta go."

"Now?!"

"Well, I would've done it sooner, but we had to work really fast and hard, and I-"

"Can't you hold it?!"

"Not for that long!"

I cursed under my breath. We had to get Droop out the doggy door unseen. Lovely.

"Alright, then stick close."

"I'll be closer than your shadow."

We crawled out from under the bed, and snuck toward the door. I jumped up, and opened it. Slowly, I peeked out into the hallway. Nobody was there. I beckoned for Droop to follow, and we crept out. I tip-toed over to the stairs, and looked down into the foyer. It stood empty. I crawled down the stairs, Droop right on my tail. (Literally)

Once there, I stared into the kitchen, where the back door was. Mrs. Hafren was sitting at the table, scribbling something in front of her. I turned around and looked at the front door. Vanessa was sitting on the couch, waving her legs and watching cartoons. "We may be able to sneak behind the couch…" I whispered to Droop.

"But she's right there!"

"She can't pay attention to anything for more than five milliseconds unless it's loud and moving! Hence her cartoons." I said, gesturing toward the TV screen.

"I never did like that one." Droop said, looking at the show that was playing.

"Neither did I." I said, staring. "Let's go then, shall we?"

"Right behind you."

We crept behind the couch, and made it several steps close to the front door, when I saw it. There was a bell on that doggy door.

"Shit."

"What?"

"See the bell on it?" I asked, pointing at the bell on the door.

"Damn, that puts a sock in our plans."

I smooshed my way back to the bottom of the stairs, and then looked back into the kitchen. Droop looked too. "I guess our only choice now is to sneak up behind her, snap her neck, and run…" Droop said solemnly.

"I hope you're kidding." I said bitterly.

"Just a bit of sarcasm! …Maybe…"

I rolled my eyes. "We need a distraction."

"You shock her, and I'll haul ass!"

"Something less violent please."

"Shit the floor here and then wait for your owner to get home?" Droop said sarcastically.

That gave me an idea. I scampered up the stairs, and Droop tried to keep up. "What are we doing?"

"If you can aim into the toilet, we may have the option just to wait."

"And if I can't aim into the toilet?"

"Then you hold it for two hours or get maimed by a neat-freak."

"I don't like those other choices…"

"Exactly."

We went into Lily's bathroom, and Droop hopped up on the toilet. He looked down at me, and then blushed. "Uh, do you think you could give me some privacy?"

I blinked, turned a very deep red, and then rushed out of the room. After a little while in the bathroom, there was a peck at the door. "You know, there was an open window in here."

I slapped my hand to my face. "Really?"

"Yeah."

"Ok then, flush, and fly out the window."

"Okay!"

I heard the toilet flush, and then a flapping of wings. Slowly, I went into the bathroom, and made sure there was no evidence of an outside bird being there. Once I checked the whole room, I went back to Lily's room, and jumped up onto the bed. I curled up on my big fluffy pillow, and closed my eyes. It was quite a day for me.


	6. Chapter 6

So by now, we should already know that Droop and Magnus are pretty good friends, Mary knows everything in the school, and Droop is basically a klepto. So, here's the new chapter!

**Chapter 6**

I woke up to the front door slamming. Making this to be a bad omen, I stretched myself awake, and then slowly walked downstairs. Lily was sitting on the couch with Vanessa, fuming. Vanessa, not noticing her sister's rage, swung her legs back and forth, and sang a tune to herself. Their mother, whom had heard the door slam as well, walked into the living room and gave a blank look at Lily. I stumbled down the stairs, and watched from the bottom step Mrs. Hafren glare at her daughter. "Lily?" She asked in her polite tone. I could hear the anger scathed into it, for the door was unnecessary.

"Yes?" Lily replied, ricocheting the tone back at her mother.

"Why did you slam the door so hard?"

Lily looked away from the TV, and gave her mother an evil glare.

"Did something happen at school?" Her mother asked, calming down immediately.

"YES!" Lily screamed exasperatedly. Vanessa, paying no attention to them started to sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and I walked over to her and stared her in the face.

"What exactly happened?" Mrs. Hafren asked, momentarily distracted by her other daughter.

"You know the boy who just recently committed suicide at my school?"

My ears perked slightly, Vanessa noticed this. She tilted her head slightly, and went silent.

Mrs. Hafren, who didn't notice Vanessa's silence, said, "Yes, why?"

"They had a small moment at school to talk about suicide and then give a heartfelt apology to his family that he had at school."

"Ok, what's wrong with that?" Mrs. Hafren asked, shifting her weight to her other foot.

"His other siblings were the most popular students in my school, Mom! Never before had I known he was their sibling! Nobody did! How in fucking hell could they let him do that?!"

My ears drooped slightly, and Vanessa took more note of this in her head without anyone noticing her still.

"Language, please, Lily!" Mrs. Hafren said. She didn't like cussing, especially near Vanessa.

"Oh come on, Mom! I know you're thinking it! How **could** they let him!?"

"I'm not arguing that, Lily, it's just that-"

"And to make it worse, they didn't even show up today! None of them! They didn't even show up for the remembrance day for their own brother!"

My ears drooped lower, and I slouched. Vanessa's mind was busy taking notes in her head.

"What kind of genuine **assholes** do that?! It's infuriating!" Lily screamed to no one.

There was an awkward silence, and Lily spoke again. "Nobody even went up to say anything for him. It was like he was…"

I stared at the ground, knowing exactly the word she was looking for.

"Invisible…" At this, I had to leave, tears were burning behind my eyes, and I skittered to the backyard. I scurried past the hydrangea bush, through the hole in the back fence, and just ran. When I was too tired to go any further, I sat down, and let the tears fall from my face silently. Images of my hellish old life came back to me, and soon enough, I was sputtering and sobbing. Why could this happen? Why was I put here into a hell of a life in the first place? Why couldn't I just not have been born in the first place? "WHY!?!" I screamed to the sky, sending bird Pokémon from the trees. I let my head droop back down, and began to sob again. Why did life just like to fuck with me?

The dark clouds above me began to thunder, and rain began to pour silently down. It was the rainiest time of the year, when the flowers bloomed their most beautiful. Why did they always look so sour to me? Lightning struck the earth near me, and the world around me turned black and white, each a different shade of gray.

I wiped my eyes and nose, and looked up to see Raikou sitting next to me once again. I simply looked away, and took a deep breath. "I'm feeling sorry for myself this time. It's no big deal." I said sadly to him.

"Even if you were, I came to give some comfort to you." Raikou purred. I looked up at him gloomily, and then leaned on him. He didn't seem startled by this at all, but just sat there, and let me continue silently streaming my tears.

"You just haven't found your closure yet, James. It's natural for you to feel sorry for yourself when you still don't have that. You used to have a way to deal with your sorrows, but when it backfired, you got hurt terribly. It may happen again, but in a different way."

"I didn't open my eyes, and in a small voice I asked, "How do I get my closure though? I don't know how to find it…"

"You do, in a way. You know what you deeply want, and to get such desire, you must observe, and take action. Simply trying to adapt to your new life won't help you forget what happened in your last. You know the way to find your closure, all you have to do is find your deepest desire for now…" And with those words, he stood, and lightning struck the ground again, leaving me in the darkened field.

I wiped my face again as the rain began to fall. What was my deepest desire? I wanted closure, and not to have this nagging sense of sadness. What more did I want?

There was a flapping of wings. "Maggie? What are you doing out here? It's raining, and you have a home. That's what it's for, stupid!" Droop said, tapping on my shoulder. I turned, and he saw my red, puffy eyes. At once, his face turned apologetic, and he said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it. Really…"

I brushed him off, and then began my way back home. My new home was better than my last, and yet I still wanted more from it. Why was it so hard to find closure? Droop, who was silently walking with me, had a worried look on his face. I turned to face him, and he stopped as well. "Droop, how did you get closure for your death?"

He blinked several times. "What?"

"Closure. How did you get over your death?"

He thought silently, and then smiled slightly. "I was fine with my death. I was neutral with my life after all. I didn't care where fate led me, and I accepted death long before it happened. It _IS_ inevitable, is it not? Eventually our final days will come, even in this new life. If you can't accept death, you will do no more than fear it."

Pure poetry sure, but that didn't help me. "I mean, when you found out you were a reborn, how, exactly did you get over it?" I asked.

Droop blinked. "I thought it was more a blessing, really. Granted, I was slightly sad that I died, that's inevitable too, and that I wouldn't have my old life, but I was happy that I got this second chance at it. I guess, I just accepted my life gone. There wasn't anyone important to me, really, and I can't really go find them and see what they're doing, that will only remind me of the grief that was suffered."

I thought of this. Was that my desire? If I took Droop's words, I would only have to accept my life as gone. But it was for other's that needed to get over it, to accept it. I needed more than just me to accept me dead. I needed five people to accept it. I knew my desire now. I had to get my old family to accept my death.

*****

Back at the house, Lily had calmed down, and was doing nothing more than staring out her window, into the dense rain. I came in through the doggy door, shook myself off, and then went up to Lily's room to be with her. When I got to the base of the stairs, I was ambushed. Vanessa looked down at me, and smiled. I gulped, as she picked me up, and she took me to her room. The walls were painted a soft, milky pink, unlike Lily's dark, pale green.

Vanessa sat me down on her bed and looked at me, inquisitively. Her short brown hair was in two separate pig tails, and she had changed into her feety pajamas early. She gazed into my eyes, and I blinked. She straightened up, and continued to look at me. I was getting anxious, and asked, "What's wrong?" Of course, to her it would only sound like Pokétalk, but I said it anyway.

She blinked, and then said one word. "James."

My ears perked at my old name. Vanessa took note of this in her mind, and then picked me up. She set me down in a play chair, turned it so it wasn't facing her, and she walked back to her bed. "Andy, come sit on the bed."

I looked at her, confused by what she meant. She went over to me, turned my head back to the wall, and then went back to the bed. "James, come sit next to me."

I turned at her again, and got off the chair. At this she smiled, and picked me up. "Thank you! Now I know who you are."

I cocked my head to the side.

"You are that boy my sister was talking about earlier today!"

My mouth fell to the floor, and Vanessa smiled. "Thank you again for proving my point!" Vanessa smiled, and set me on the floor. "Don't worry, I won't tell. But even if I did, nobody would believe me."

She skipped out of the room, leaving me and my dumbstruck jaw on the floor. I shut it, and then walked to Lily's room. How did Vanessa know?

Lily was still staring out at the sky when I came in. She didn't acknowledge me, and I jumped up onto her bed. She merely glanced at me, before returning her gaze out the window. "Well, a pleasant 'Hello' to you too, Lily." I said sarcastically.

Lily petted behind my ears for a moment, and then said. "Hey there, little one. I see you have been out in the rain." She smiled, and picked up a towel from the floor. She dried me off a bit more, and then looked at her desk, which was the only clean thing in her room. Sitting on it was a charcoal stick, and a sheet of newsprint. "I was going to try to try an art today. I can't really do anything. I'm not super smart, I don't have a very good voice, and Mew knows I can't play any instrument besides that old piano. But not too well, either." She sighed. I stared at the paper and charcoal. _You used to have a way to deal with your sorrows…_

I thought of these words, and jumped to the desk. I stared at the charcoal, and then the paper. I gazed at my hands as well. I didn't rally have fingers, just a paw, and gripper, but that was really just basically a thumb. I looked back at the charcoal, and gingerly, picked it up. I tried to hold it the way I used to hold a pencil, but since I was lacking any separate fingers, I held it at an angle one would to shade something. I looked back at Lily, who was watching me with little interest. I looked back at the paper, and then set the charcoal on it.

The familiar feeling of sliding charcoal on paper was exhilarating, as I slid it around on the paper, drawing the first thing that came to my mind. Lily came over to watch, and her jaw dropped, as she saw the picture of the field I sat in with Raikou. The grasses were aligned just right, the clouds, even the subtle hint of the first droplets of rain falling. I put on the final touch, a lightning strike in the distance, and then looked back up at Lily.

She stared in amazement at the gorgeous picture. She glanced at me, and gingerly, pulled it out from underneath me. She stared at it a little more, and then walked from the room. I watched her leave, and when she did, I set the charcoal down, and went back to the bed. The word Closure slid through my mind, and I stuck my hands out the window to clean my hands. Would a drawing affect anyone in my family?

*****

*****

*****

So, it's kinda a filler chapter here, and then, kinda not. At least we established the fact that Magnus can still draw! But will his idea work? Who knows… Maybe, maybe not… :o


	7. Chapter 7

Yet another new chappie up and running! Wooo for me! I'm actually updating! :D

Too bad it took forever. Oh well, that's _**YOUR **_problem!

**Chapter 7**

"I still think it's weird that you still have that ability to draw so well." Droop said, gazing over my shoulder onto the newly completed charcoal drawing.

"Well, drawing is more of practice and patience. The skills are transferrable." I said back, holding the picture up. A regal-looking Arcanine gazed back at me, through the blacks and whites of the charcoal. I set it to the side and started on a new sheet. Droop looked at the finished papers, before asking, "Remind me why you're doing this."

"Well, I can accept my death perfectly fine, with time, of course, but I need others to accept it as well." I said to him, I stuck my tongue out at the paper, before crinkling it up and flinging it at the trash can.

"I know that, I'm just curious in why it involves charcoal and newsprint."

I pulled another sheet from the stack next to me. "Well, if my family can't just open their hearts for their brother, or son, then I just have to do it for them. And I'm hoping that the memory of the drawings will be enough of a shock to open them."

"And if they aren't?" Droop asked solemnly.

"Then I'm going to have to find a different way to smack the sense into them."

This time the picture of the Glameow came out good enough for my taste. I put it onto the finished stack of papers. I let out a sigh. "This is going to take a while…"

"Didn't you used to do nothing but this?"

"Yes, but at that time I had nothing else. It was the only thing keeping me calm. Ish. It sort of backfired onto me when I saw them burn all those drawings, but it helped, even if it was only for a short while. Besides, I didn't have friends then." I said, giving him a smile. Droop smiled back, and then said, "Either way, you need to finish."

"Right…" I said, giving the stack of papers a fiendish glare.

I tried to re-draw some of the pictures in the notebook that my siblings looked through before burning them. First, the shadowed boy crying in a corner, wearing nothing but black, the only emotion that echoed off the picture was sadness. The picture was very dark as well, very little of the paper showed light at all. Once done, I set it on the picture of the Glameow. This picture was to be given to Mary.

The next was of the same shadowed figure, but he was standing up against a wall, casting a long shadow down it. His hair covered his eyes, and on his chest I drew the outline of a heart with cracks going through it. Broken hearted, as one should figure, with some proper shading, the picture was given some more emphasis, and it was finished. Droop, all the while, remained silent as I drew, watching my movements along the pages.

I set the paper on the picture of the Carvanha, which was aimed for Michael. Lastly, the picture for the Arcanine, the picture which would be given to Tyler.

I slid another paper in front of me, and stared at it. This picture wouldn't be from the journal at all. It would be filled with much more emotion. Much more hate, and anger.

I set the charcoal on the paper, still thinking hard. I traced a quick oval, and then began to draw feverishly, with the thought still fresh in my mind. The shadow boy, again, but this time, it was a close shot, a portrait of his face. An invisible wind had blown the hair from his face, showing his face, this was the hardest part; I tried my hardest to remember. The picture flashed before my eyes, and I captured it, I drew it on the page.

Once done with the facial emotion, I scribbled cuts and spatters of blood on his face and neck. To the neck, I added the faint wispy outline of a rope. The rope trailed out behind him, connecting to other shadows, the shadows of my family. Once I shaded the last shadow, I held up the picture in front of me. Before me was a hard sketched picture of me. My old self, with the rope around his neck, connecting to all the horrors and sadness of my old life. I glared at the picture, trying to focus as much hatred and anger into this one picture, trying my hardest to put an evil aura into it.

I felt feathers on my shoulder. I turned my head to see Droop giving me a serious look. "Don't lose it, Magnus. Don't let it backfire yet again."

With these words, I sighed, and put the paper on the Arcanine. I went to go sit on Lily's bed. I couldn't believe I could get exhausted from drawing…

I heard the front door open, and Droop said a small goodbye before jumping out the window and flying away. I didn't glance at his silhouette against the sky. The door opened, and Lily came in, one of her friends following her. She had short blonde hair, and she looked like one of the bohemian girls. My eyes widened as I realized the pictures were still lying out in the open. It would be _really_ awkward for Lily and her friend to see that. I jumped up to get to the desk, but unfortunately for me, Lily's friend got one first. She picked it up, and looked at it. Her eyes widened, and she looked at Lily. "Did you draw this, Lily? Its amazing!"

_That _wasn't the reaction I was expecting. Lily looked at the paper, and then down at me. "Actually, it was Maggie who drew it…"

Bohemian girl just looked down at me. "Really?"

My ears fell, and I nodded, slightly embarrassed. Both Lily and her friend looked at the paper again. "Wow… This is some amazing stuff, Lily…"

She set it back on the table, and looked at Lily. "Anyway, you were going to show me that guy friend of yours?" She said, flipping her hair from her eyes.

"Yeah, he's right next door, I'll introduce you, if you want…"

"Of course!"

They walked from the room. I blinked. That was weird. No wonder guys couldn't get girls. I jumped to the desk, and gathered all the pictures. I folded them carefully, not wanting to destroy the art. Once all three were carefully folded up, I crawled under Lily's bed, and put the drawings into the leather bag along with all of Droop's things. I heard the flapping of wings.

I crawled out from under the bed, and looked up at the window. Nobody was there. Curious, I clambered up onto the windowsill, and looked around, Droop wasn't here, nor was anyone else, as far as I could see it. Even more curious, I edged out carefully onto the roof. I crawled up on top of the chimney pole, and looked around, being careful not to fall, in the chimney, or off the roof itself. (I just recovered from a similar injury after all)

I looked in all directions, up, around, even down at the bushes. Nothing moved. Nothing seemed off guard. Satisfied, I turned.

Right into a Fearow.

I nearly tumbled off the chimney, but I caught myself, and looked up at the Fearow. "Uh, can I help you?" I asked, seeming myself as innocent as possible.

"Stop the innocence, Minun; I know you're faking it." He said in a deep voice.

My face and ears fell simultaneously. I gulped. "What?"

The Fearow, whom seemed thirty times bigger than me at this moment, lowered his face down to mine. "I know you have it here."

I gulped again, before repeating myself. "What?"

The Fearow backed up a little and rolled his eyes. "The stuff you stole from me. I know it's here, so give it up." He leaned in closer to my face. "Before I make you hurt."

"Is it wise of you to threaten someone who has a type advantage over you?" I said, sounding much braver than I expected.

At this, his beak curled into an evil grin, and then launched me into the air with his long beak.

I managed to scream only halfway up and down. The other half was crying.

I was caught by what felt like a flying brick. I let out a cough, and looked at what had caught me.

Droop was speeding away from the scene like a bullet, leaving the Fearow stunned. But that didn't last too long. He lifted into the air, let out a cry, and sped after us.

This, my dear Readers, is a car chase in the Pokémon world. It's only four times scarier.

I could only compare myself to a scared Whismur at this point. I didn't know my lungs could let out this much air at one time, either. This didn't exactly help Droop, seeing as he had to try to fly as fast as he could, with a Pokémon undoubtedly three times stronger than him chasing us, with wings that were heavier than a jet, and now, a portable alarm system that could wake up a person in a Coma.

The Fearow zoned in, his Beak still twisted in the malicious grin. I shut my yap for a minute, only to scream at Droop. "This is what **I **get for helping you hide that stuff!!!"

Droop, still trying to cope with everything, yelled back at me. "I know! Just let me think of something!"

I took a mental note of the Fearow getting closer, before yelling, "Well unless that idea is getting murdered by a gargantuan bird ten feet away, I suggest you think faster!"

This seemed to click a cog in his head. "Magnus!" He yelled at me. "Aim a thunderbolt at him!"

"What?!"

"Just _do _it!" He screamed at me.

I straightened up, which nearly flung me from Droop's back. I took a small stance, and shot a bolt of bright yellow electricity from my fist at the Fearow. It missed, and he cackled at me. I ducked and held on as tight as I could to Droop, just as the Fearow attacked at me from the side. Droop, being the agile little bugger he is, did a barrel roll, dodging the attack, and dropping us about ten feet. He flew back up to his previous height, and I now noticed we had flown out over the forest. I was hoping this wouldn't last too long, who knew where in the hell we were going to show up if this lasted too long.

I was flung back onto my feet by Droop, who then told me, "alright dude, we're entering his home territory, expect recruits!"

"Recruits?!" I asked nervously.

And, just like all things cliché, several Spearow and Starly popped from the treetops, and began to follow their leader. "Fuck." I said, giving them all a glare.

"Shoot, you dumbass!" Droop screamed at me, as he noticed several of the Starly began to pour down upon us. I shot thunderbolts madly, wearing myself out steadily. Several of them connected, and the birds fell to the ground like roast chickens. For the Starly that didn't get hit, they backed up, but kept their pace with us. I noticed the Fearow and Spearow had disappeared.

"Beware of a surprise attack, Droop…" I said nervously to him.

"Will do." And with that, he flew even higher, instantly giving me Vertigo.

I gulped, and looked at the Starly down beneath us. They were cawing madly, and I attempted to silence them, and, much to my surprise, succeeded.

Unfortunately, the message got through, and a huge gust of wind struck from below, I tried to hold onto Droop's tail feathers, but the whirlwind sent us spiraling upward, the force was then too great, and I let go. I flailed upward in the continuous gust, before gravity turned back on, and I was speeding toward the ground, bawling like mad. I landed on something fluffy, and found myself on top of the Fearow. He looked at me in surprise, before his expression change to anger, and he spun in the air so rapidly I wouldn't have internal organs if I held on.

Again, I was sent soaring through the air, as powerless as, well, a Minun in mid-air.

After a quick tumble, I landed on the flying brick again. I let out a deep groan, and said, "Good to see you again, Droop."

"Same to you, buddy!" He said cheerily, before rocketing forward again. This time, I held onto his wings to prevent myself from flying off again.

Adrenaline pumped into me at this point. And in an instant, everything went into a motion slower than slow. I blinked, and looked around. Everything was still in its place. Every bird was still in its spot, their beaks' wide open, letting out a battle cry. I thought for a quick minute, this was obviously some sort of Raikou's meddling. I smiled at the gesture, and with my feet, shot out tremendous attacks of Thunder, which, surprisingly, didn't drain me at all. And before I knew it, time resumed itself entirely, and the few shots I fired fried the few birds I aimed at, sending them tumbling toward the ground.

I laughed, and then assessed the rest of the enemy remaining. The Fearow remained flying, and only a few Spearow remained. I smiled maliciously, and fired a thunder at one of the remaining Spearow. Unfortunately, I didn't have my strength anymore, and even though the Spearow fell like a fly, I didn't have the energy to take out the remaining two birds.

"Fuck…" I panted, putting my head to Droop's back. "I can't do that anymore."

"Come on buddy," Droop said worriedly, "There are only two more!"

I panted more. "Can't…"

"Dammit. Then hold on as tight as you possibly can, and whatever you do, don't scream."

"Wha-" But I was cut off. Droop began to spin rapidly, and sharp, jagged rocks flew from the ends of his wings. I didn't know what he meant by 'don't scream,' until I realized we were plummeting like, well, rocks. I did my best to keep my bile and scream in my stomach, and it sort of worked, but I still let out a squeaky noise. I heard a sharp painful scream, and in a blur, saw the other Spearow get nailed in the chest by one of the rocks. He fell to the earth; I caught a glimpse of his eyes, dull, and lifeless.

The Fearow managed to dodge most of the rocks, much to our dismay, and right when Droop straightened out, the Fearow dove, and I felt myself get lifted from his back. This time, I screamed. The Fearow cackled, before flinging me straight downward. I was speeding toward the ground, and I took aim one last time.

I released the strongest Thunder I could muster at that moment, before hitting the ground, feeling an intense pain, and losing all consciousness.

****

I heard Magnus scream, and I saw in only moments the Fearow lift him from me, cackle, and then fling him at the ground. He laughed again, before getting struck by a blue bolt of electricity.

He let out a scream, before the Thunder exploded on him, and I too went tumbling toward the ground. I screamed the whole way down, but fortunately I missed the trees, and I caught a slight wind, before I slammed into the ground, and tumbled across it.

I was lying on my face, with my ass in the air. "Wow. _That_ was graceful." I said snidely to myself. I pushed myself off the ground, and cracked my neck. I shook myself off, and dirt flew into the air. I sneezed, and then jumped to my feet. That's when I remembered what had just happened. My eyes widened, and I jumped around. "Magnus!" I screamed out. "Magnus where are you!?"

No answer. That wasn't a good sign.

I jumped into the air, and soared through the trees, trying to find my lost friend. All the while I called out to him, knowing the all the possibilities of falling from great heights.

I shook the thought from my mind. That couldn't happen to him. They couldn't possibly let him die; he was just reborn for crying out loud! The world stopped, and all around me turned a shade of red-gray. I tumbled to the ground, as my wings turned to lead. I tumbled head over heels, and landed on my face yet again. "Mew Dammit." I muttered. I sat up, and cracked my neck again, before turning around.

In front of me, a majestic bird was touching down. She waved her fiery mane, and then smiled at me. "Long time no see, Preston."

I nodded to Moltres. "It certainly has been." I didn't care anymore that she used my old name; it reminded me of whom I was.

"What is your commotion this time?" She asked, offering a wing to me. I settled next to her, and sighed. "I've done nothing but trouble my new friend. I'm sure that he isn't dead, but I don't know. It's all my fault he's been through this mess." I started to breathe heavily and fast. This was the last thing I needed, to have a panic attack.

Moltres took a deep breath, and her beak curved upward. She looked down at me, and said, "Raikou isn't heartless enough to let his chosen little one die like that. Believe it or not, behind that rough exterior, Raikou is a very soft and loving creature. He thinks of himself as a father of your friend now. Just like I am your mother." She nestled me closer to her. I let out a deep breath, the panic was still in me, but it wasn't as intense.

Moltres released me, and quietly said, "He isn't going to die, Preston, but you do need to help him." She gestured toward a group of trees. "He's in there. And don't worry, He'll be fine."

She leapt off the ground, and flew up into the sky. The sun enveloped her silhouette, and the world's color returned. I blinked several times, before jumping to my feet and heading off in the direction that Moltres told me to go.

After several seconds, I saw a blue and yellow lump laying in the tall grass. I shooed several Hoppip off of him, and they scattered away into the grass. I looked down at Magnus. He wasn't in the best shape, but it didn't look like he was in the worst, either.

I poked him several times with my beak. When this didn't work, I looked around. Several herbs and grasses were growing nearby, but they wouldn't help me at this point. I looked at the ground, and (much to my total unbelief) found a potion bottle laying there, looking perfectly untouched. I jumped over to it, picked it up in my beak, and hopped back over to Magnus, who attracted several Hoppip again. I glared at each of them. One looked at me. "What?"

"Why are you guys surrounding him like that?"

"Dude, who WOULDN'T take advantage over an unconscious thing that you can mate with?"

At this, I shooed them all away again, cawing like an insane bird. They scattered again, and I pointed the bottle at Magnus. The purple liquid sprayed out of it, and at once Magnus sat up yelling. Once up, however, he yelped in pain, and fell back down. "Shit, that stuff stings…" He moaned. I smiled, and sprayed the rest of the bottle onto him. Once done, he laid back down, and closed his eyes. "Where are we?" He muttered to me.

"I don't know." I said, gnawing at my lower beak.

"Lovely…" He said, taking a deep sigh.

I sat down next to him. "Well, now you should know what it means to be friends with me."

At this, he glared at me, and said, "Fuck, you."

I smiled. "Glad to hear it."

We sat there in the small field for a little while, listening to nothing but the wind blow, and we watched the sun begin settling its way down the western sky. Magnus blinked, and then I saw his eyes widen. "We have to get home."

"Why?" I asked, looking at him like he was an idiot.

"I need to get home. That's why." He said through gritted teeth.

I took this as a signal to obey, and he slowly crawled onto my back. I bounced into the air, and started to fly at a slow pace, scanning what lay in front of us.

It was nothing but forest. It didn't help that his town was small, and had a lot of trees in it as well. So, we were flying around for quite some time, trying to look for the town.

About an hour or so later, I saw a town on the horizon. I flapped my wings harder, and we were soon hovering over it. I let out a breath. At least we weren't totally lost.

Too bad we were totally lost. It turns out that I had gone the wrong direction, and we ended up in Azalea City. Just my luck.

****

****

****

Wow. This is pretty long for one of my chapters… Unfortunately, it was supposed to be a page longer in Microsoft Word…. -.-

Dammit.

Anyway, leave a review if you have the time, and if you don't, leave a review anyway. MmmK? :D


	8. Chapter 8

Hey!

Did you miss me?

Or just my story?

……

Wow, that's a little mean. :l If you happen to remember this part of my note in your review, I will feel better tho…. ^-^

I may even update faster next time! Lol. (hinting look)

**Chapter 8**

"I thought birds were supposed to have an acute sense of direction." I said spitefully to Droop as we walked along the streets of the wrong city.

"I thought bunny-things were supposed to be happier." Droop replied, repeating my tone of voice back to me.

"I guess we thought wrong."

"Apparently."

We had been walking around in Azalea city for about an hour, trying to find a basic sign showing us to a Pokécenter or back to Cherrygrove City. Unfortunately for us, we only encountered overly ecstatic trainers, destined in catching us. This was usually sent awry when I would cuss them out, and then give them the Pokémon equivalent of the middle finger.

And just for that, we were jumped by yet ANOTHER trainer. "I'm gonna catch that Minun!" He screamed over-enthusiastically.

"Oh Em _**GEE!**_" I yelled in a mocking voice.

"Go! Sentret!" He yelled, throwing a red and white sphere in front of us. A puffy raccoon Pokémon materialized in front of me, and yelled in excitement. I gave him a glare, and he shrunk about thirty times to my dark aura. A small puddle formed around him, and he shrank back behind his trainer, quivering.

I walked up to the trainer, and looked from him to his Pokémon.

"I suggest you tell your buddy here to go home, before I rip his and your balls off and feed them to you." I said to the Sentret.

He only let out a whimper, before fainting.

I walked away. The battle was over.

Droop shrugged at the stunned trainer, before hurrying up to me. "Jeez, somebody wants to get home."

"And they said WILD Pokémon got annoying." I growled between gritted teeth. "If we found the damn Pokécenter, I could get shipped home tomorrow, and you could just fly above the van, or, we could find the correct route sign, and get the hell out of this town filled with moronic noobs."

A scream came from behind us. "It's a Minun!"

I slapped my paw to my face, "If only they made a repel for THEM."

Droop laughed. But quickly stopped when he saw the look I was giving him. The trainer was quickly disposed of, and I began to walk away from the dumpster. Right before we left the alley, something touched my shoulder.

I jumped and turned, which resulted in several jolts of electricity into whatever touched me. "SHIT! That HURTS!!!" It screamed. I blinked, before looking at the charred creature. The first thing I noticed was the shining coin on its head. The Meowth dusted the ash off of itself, and glared at me. "That wasn't very polite for a first greeting." He said angrily.

"It's not like I had much of a choice. I can't exactly control my reactions to sudden gestures."

The Meowth let out a small huff, before speaking again. "I was just trying to get your attention."

"Couldn't you just call out?"

"Do you know what that would result in? I believe you've been trying to avoid them for a while."

A mental image of a head slap went through my head. "Okay, either way, you have my attention."

He rolled his eyes. "I was just going to say I know this city backwards and forwards. As the humans say, 'as well as the back of my paw.'"

"Hand." Droop corrected.

"Don't roll that way, dude." The Meowth said quickly to him.

I stifled a laugh as Droop impatiently ruffled his feathers. "I was trying to correct you…" He muttered.

"Whatever, you both know what I meant."

"Get to the point, kitty." I said, tapping my foot impatiently.

"I was just going to say I can get the both of you out of here without too many dweebs getting in your way."

Instantly I was on his side. "Thank Mew! YES, get us out!"

The Meowth shoved me off. "For a price."

"I knew there was a catch…" Droop muttered.

The Meowth simply smiled, and said, "Not much of one, if you gave me even one coin, I'll get you out. If you guys go for free, then you'll have to take the 'scenic' route."

I shuddered. "No, no, we can get a coin for you."

"Good!" The Meowth said cheerfully. "I'll wait here whilst you go get it!"

We were shooed from the alley, and were left alone on the darkening street. "Great. Where are we supposed to find a good, shiny coin?" I said, looking around the street.

"Well, I think we should've gone through that kid's wallet before lighting his clothes on fire and throwing him in the dumpster, but NOOOO, Pokémon don't USE money!" Droop said mockingly.

"So it wasn't my brightest idea, I was just annoyed…" I mumbled.

"Well, we just have to find a coin! Can you dance? We can get some cash that way."

"Uh, that would just attract more unwanted attention, and no, I can't."

"Sing?"

"Uhm, not very well…"

"Act out things?"

"Failed that class."

"Do caricatures?"

"Aren't those the people at theme parks who draw your facial features real funny?"

"Yeah."

"That's demeaning to art."

Droop let out a huff. "Do you even HAVE the move sing?"

"I think so." I said without much thought. I should have given it much more, because if I had, I wouldn't have been placed on a cardboard box and be forced to sing something.

"Do you KNOW any songs?" Droop was whispering angrily from behind me, a small group was looking at me, expectant of something.

"You know I did art, not music!" I whispered back.

"I don't care! Sing what you know!"

"I'm a little Tea Pot won't impress anyone!"

"You don't expect me to believe that crap! Everyone knows at least ONE song by heart!"

I sighed. I did, unfortunately, but I wasn't going to sing it out to the gathering group of people in front of us. Droop gave me yet another look. I sighed. This would go so much better without the Cricketune… But, we promised half the profit, and he was ready to play. I whispered the song for him to strum along with, (it was stunning to how close it actually was) and took another deep breath. I began:

"I can still remember,  
The words and what they meant,  
As we etched them with our fingers,  
In years of wet cement,  
The days blurred into each other,  
Though everything seemed clear,  
We cruised along at half speed,  
But then we shifted gears.

"We ran like vampires from a thousand burning sons,  
But even then we should have stayed,  
But we ran away-  
Now all my friends gone,  
Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved,  
Runaway-  
But what are we running from?  
A show of hands from those in this audience of one.  
Where have they gone?

"Identities assume us,  
As nine and five add up,  
Synchronizing watches-  
To the seconds that we lost.  
I looked up and saw you,  
I know that you saw me,  
"We froze but for a moment-  
In empathy,

"I brought down the sky for you but all you did was shrug.  
You gave my emptiness away.

"But you ran away!  
Now all my friends are gone.  
Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved,  
Runaway-  
But what are we running from?  
A show of hands from those in this audience of one.  
Where have they gone?

"We're all ok, until the day we're not.  
The surface shines, while the inside rots-  
We raced the sunset, and we almost won.  
We slammed the brakes, but the wheels went on.

"We ran away!  
Now all my friends are gone.  
Maybe we've outgrown all the things that we once loved,  
Runaway-  
But what are we running from?  
A show of hands from those in this audience of one.  
Where have they gone?"

~-.-~

I took a bow, as the small audience stood amazed. It was all in Pokétalk, but obviously they recognized the melody. I glanced nervously at the crowd, before Droop shoved a top-hat into my paws, and then thrust it out to the crowd. They all looked at it questioningly, but someone walked up and dropped a bill into it. It wasn't long before the small crowd had all filed by, dropping money into the hat. After the last woman deposited a small amount of pocket change into it, Droop, the Cricketune and I stared into it. The now heavy hat was loaded with bills, coins, and what looked like a half-eaten cookie.

Droop pulled out one or two of each coin, and several of the bills, before handing the rest of the hat to the Cricketune. "That may be a little over half, but you won't object, will you?" Droop asked.

He quickly shook his head, and ran off with a happy look on his face. Droop looked at me. "Just in case that sucker got a little picky on his coins and cash, I grabbed each variety." He said, holding up each coin, bill, and cookie.

"Good thinking." I said, staring at each of the shining coins. "Lets get going, shall we?"

"Of course."

The walk was rather short, and little was said on the way back. By the time we had gotten back to the alley, the Meowth was waiting for us, sitting on a windowsill close to the ground. Once he saw us, he jumped off, and greeted me. "Took ya long enough! Did you get a coin?"

"Several." I said, gesturing to the stash Droop had.

The Meowth's eyes glinted with greed. "May I have them?"

"Only if you are still up with your bargain." I said, holding him away from the coins. He whimpered slightly, and then glared at me. "Of course I'm still holding it! Now hand over the cash!"

I rolled my eyes as Droop handed the giddy cat his coins. The Meowth smiled brightly at them, and then gestured for us to follow. "This way!" He led us up onto the rooftops, and then pointed out toward the forest. "That way is Cherrygrove City."

I gave him an angry look. "Was it REALLY necessary to make us get all those coins, JUST so you could point us in a DIRECTION?!"

"Hey, I only said ONE." He said, holding his paws up. "And I didn't specify the variety, you just handed it all over!"

I cursed my impatience and stupidity, before walking over to Droop. "You ready to fly?"

"Ready as I'll ever be." He said, holding out his wings. I was about to clamber on, when the Meowth grabbed my shoulder again. I turned. "What?"

He looked slightly embarrassed, before saying, "Do you mind if I came with you?"

My jaw dropped. Did he REALLY just ask that? "Uhm, we barely know one another!"

He seemed crestfallen. "It's just that, I really want a good owner, and I figured that you have one… Seeing your earring…" He said, gesturing toward my left ear.

I held it down, and looked at the shining silver loop. I sighed. "I'm sorry, but I don't think it would work out."

At this, he knew he wouldn't succeed, and said, "Well, if that's how you feel. But if you ever re-think it, I'll probably still be here."

"I'll do so." I said, wanting this conversation to be over.

"By the way, my name is Andy, just in case you were wondering." He said cheerfully.

I jumped on Droop, and he lifted off the ground. I waved good-bye, as we flew out of sight.

~-.-~

~-.-~

~-.-~

Sorry this chapter was so short, I just needed to update. Sorry if it was filler.

**DEAL.**


	9. Chapter 9

We're getting close to the beginning of the middle now! YAY! I'm estimating that this story may be thirty to forty chapters long, seeing the rate we've been going has been, uh, slow. I hope it will get done around July, June, maybe? And even that seems a bit ambitious, if you ask me. O.o

So, I hope you're all in this for the long haul. ;)

Now, we get into Chapter 9…

OH! And before I forget, the song from the last chapter was "Audience of One" By rise against. I do not own or operate it, and all that jazz. Now go listen to it on iTunes or something. It's a great song. :o

**Chapter 9**

I took a heavy yawn, and smacked my lips. I don't ever remember staying up this late as a Pokémon. It didn't exactly help that it was getting that perfect chilled temperature, where if you wrap yourself in a blanket, you fall asleep in mere seconds. I didn't exactly have a blanket, but I had something fluffy underneath me and I had fur.

I yawned again. This time, so did Droop. "Dammit, Magnus, you keep doing that and I'll fall asleep…"

"Race you to it…" I muttered. I attempted to put sarcasm into that, but I was too tired to do so. So I rubbed my eyes and tried to stay awake. To help this, I decided to talk to Droop. "Have you ever stayed up this late?"

"Not recently." Droop said with a yawn.

"Do you mind if I nap on you?"

"Yes."

"Damn." I said, tugging at my ear impatiently. It was getting rather difficult to stay awake. I had to do something to keep myself conscious. I lit my finger, and poked my earring.

That worked. After I was done electrocuting myself, I realized why they call it, "buzzed". I blinked several times, the world becoming much clearer now that my eyes weren't blurry from the onslaught of sleep. And I saw the things I thought I'd never see again. "LIGHTS!" I yelled to nobody in particular.

Droop, who could maintain his sarcasm in sleep deprivation, said "Oh em gee! No way!"

Maybe a slight shock could wake Droop up too… I thought mischievously. I lit my finger once more before realizing my stupidity. It wasn't most effective on me, yet it managed to zap me awake. If I did the same thing to Droop, it might have knocked him out. So, I toned it down to nothing more than a basic charge, and gently tapped his head. He shivered, then gave me a questioning look. "What was that?"

"An attempt to wake you up."

"It didn't really work." He said, stifling yet another yawn.

"What?" I asked, gazing at my finger then to Droop.

He ignored me. I gazed at him once again, curious in why it didn't harm him as much as it should have. But before my head wrapped around it, I noticed Droop's descent. I had totally forgotten about the lights in such a short time. Wow, I was quite absent minded when it came to these things. *insert mental head slap*

After a few brief moments of descending and searching, Droop landed in Lily's backyard. I jumped off, and instantly got jelly legs. I fell flat on my face, and grunted in unappreciation. I heard Droop stifle a giggle. I perked my ears, and heard something, not as expected.

I poked my head over the fence, and my jaw nearly dropped. Danny, the rich snobby kid, was sitting in his hot tube, most likely in the nude, seeing as Lily's blonde friend from earlier today was. I had caught them in a very, uh, revealing, way. I felt my face burn hot red. My ears fell, and I knew I should have just left, but I couldn't. I was almost glued to my spot on the fence.

"This night just got suddenly interesting…" said a voice from beside me. I looked up, and saw Droop, his eyes sparkling with mischief, and behind them, I knew he was building up some sort of evil prank.

Ignoring him for now, I returned my gaze to the steamy scene in front of us. "Exactly how fascinating is this for you?" Droop asked, his curiosity and sarcasm ringing.

"Uh, I was technically a virgin when I died. This is all new to me,-for the most part." I added quickly, remembering unpleasant nights from before.

That's when my curiosity panged. "Aren't you a little, uh, disturbed?"

Droop gave me an are-you-kidding-how-long-have-you-known-me look, before stating, "I was seventeen when I died. I was a hippy, and I started back when I was twelve, so, no, not much."

I rolled my eyes at this, before shuddering and returning my gaze on the now increasingly steamy scene.

*****

After a few moments of intense watching, and many comments, Magnus retreated to the house, mumbling something of vomit and an eye toothbrush.

I jumped off the fence, and bounced over to the bush I held as my home.

Just as I was about to roost and sleep, a hushed voice came from the other fence. "Is he gone?"

I looked up, a Plusle was standing at the hole in the fence, gazing at me with her big brown eyes. "Who?" I asked quietly.

"That Minun!"

"Magnus?"

"I didn't know his name…" She said, looking ashamed.

"Uh, now you do." I said, getting slightly embarrassed and feeling overly awkward. It stood that way for a long time, getting more awkward by the minute, before I asked, "Why did you need to know?"

This had caught her seriously off-guard, and she started babbling misunderstood nonsense. I held up a feather, and she stopped talking. I paused, before saying, "Ok, start from the beginning, and go slowly, otherwise you sound like a broken record on repeat."

"What?" She asked, tilting her head to the side.

"Never mind." I said, realizing that either she was wild, or not very bright.

"Well, as long as you keep it a secret…" She said quietly.

She was interrupted by a loud and strangely arousing noise from the other yard. The Plusle gazed passed me, and said, "Is that boy in the water with another female?"

"Yeah, and as far as I'm concerned, it's quite distracting." I said, glaring at the fence.

"Anyway, I just wanted to say that I wanted a place to sing tonight without him as an audience member." She said quickly, falling over her words as she went.

I gazed up in slight question. She blushed slightly, and said, "He's a little distracting as well."

I realized what she meant by this, and I smiled, and said, "He's always fast asleep at 1 AM, but I suggest you sing softly."

"Ok, thanks!" She said, letting out a huge breath of air.

"No problem?" I asked stupidly.

"Bye!" She waved, and ran off.

I gave her one final look, before thinking to myself. What a weird girl.

The next morning, after getting no sleep through the ruckus in the next yard, I stretched my wings, and flew off to find something to eat. I found a berry bush several yards over, and enjoyed them generously. I myself didn't like to eat insects, seeing as they were gross, even in my newer, birdy form. But besides from that, I was perfectly content with nuts, berries, and all sorts of morning goodies.

After being shooed from the bush, I flew back to Magnus' roof, and landed on the chimney, giving a little chirp that he recognized as me. After a few moments of grumbling, a sleepy Magnus crawled up onto the roof with a lemonade can and his Pokéfood. We watched the sun drift lazily up into the sky, and watched Lily leave for school, followed by her father, then followed by her mother and Vanessa. Vanessa looked up at the roof, giggled when she saw us, and pranced to her mother's car. They drove off, leaving both of us by ourselves.

I cracked my neck, and stretched, before looking down at Magnus, who was sleepily eating his food. I shivered slightly in the warming spring morning. "I thought lemonade was for summer, not early spring." I said to him, glancing at the can he was sipping from.

"You think a _lot_ of things, Droop." He said, burping and throwing the can off the roof into the snob's lawn.

I ruffled my feathers at this, but shook it off. For someone who used to be so sad, Magnus was quite a smartass. The brief silence was interrupted by yet another burp.

I looked down and saw the dish he was holding empty, and he was sitting there, completely bored. I yawned, and said, "So, what exactly were you going to do with those pictures? As I recall, they're still underneath the bed."

Magnus' eyes lit up, before he scrambled to his feet, and looked at me expectantly. "Remember the place we crashed the first time we met?" He said quickly, tumbling over his words in his excitement. I thought to myself how similar he was to the Plusle. I nodded, and Magnus continued. "Do you think you can fly me there? Today?" He asked, eyes shining.

"Uh, yeah, I guess so." I said, yawning again. "It's not like I have anything else to do, you know, worthwhile to the plot I mean."

"Uh, dude, you do know we're rolling, right?"

"Oh, yeah, right, sorry."

Magnus bounced back down into Lily's room, and shortly came back with the three envelope-like pictures. I spread my wings, and he bounced on my back. I glanced back at him. "Recently I feel like I've been used for some sort of carrier pigeon or something."

"Dude, just fly." Magnus said, dragging his paw down his face.

*****

In a short matter of seconds, we arrived at my old house. Droop landed on the chimney, and I looked down into the driveway. No cars were present, so I guessed that nobody was home. I jumped down into the backyard, and looked at the windows. I should have figured they were going to be shut. After several humiliating attempts to try to pry them open, I finally asked for Droop's assistance. In one simple motion, he leapt onto the windowsill, looked up and down the side, and then slid his rocky feathers in between the crack separating the window from the wall.

The window slid open, and Droop bowed me in, looking accomplished of himself. "You know, that isn't always a good trait, being able to break into people's houses."

"Yeah, yeah, we got in, right?" He said, pouncing into the living room behind me. He was shocked when he saw the room.

Everything was neat and orderly. The coffee table was clean; the pictures were lined up properly, (except for the missing ones, of course) and the carpet had been recently cleaned. I knew this as only one person.

My mother.

On the rare occasion she was home, which was usually just for a few hours whilst I was at school before she left again, she completely cleaned the house, and did a good job at that. I looked guiltily at the pictures hanging on the wall. All the ones that had me in them were gone, their shaded outline still left on the paint.

I shook off the feeling of dread I had, and began to walk further into the house. Droop followed. "Do any of these pictures have you in them? I noticed a few places they could be missing…" He whispered behind me. I shook my head, and whispered, "No. None of them have me."

We stopped at the stairs. There were several options I could take. I could either continue on with my main goal, to plant the pictures in the rooms of my siblings and stick around for the reactions, or I could explore the rest of my old home to see what had changed.

I bounced up the stairs, heading for my siblings' rooms. I stopped at my door, which was closed. I stared up at the handle, dread filling me. I shook my head, and continued on to the next door, Michael and Tyler's room. I was thankful they had to share a room, but being twins, they got the biggest.

I inched open the door, and saw what one would normally see in their room. Dirty clothing littered the floor, and it reeked of sweaty gym socks. I pinched my nose, and put the pictures on the beds, the Carvanha picture on Michael's and the Arcanine Picture on Tyler's.

Droop and I quickly left the room, and as soon as we did, both of us let out a gasp of air. We laughed at one another for doing the exact same thing, before making a beeline to Mary's room.

This time, the room didn't reek, but it definitely had a hung scent of perfume. As I did before, I placed the picture of the Glameow on her bed, and left the room. I shut the door behind us, and looked at Droop. He looked at me with questioning eyes, curious in what I was thinking. "What?" I asked, tilting my head to the side.

"…nothing." Droop said cautiously, as if he was answering wrong. "What do we do now?"

"It's simple; we wait and see what happens." I said back, looking proud of myself.

"Uh, how do you suppose we do that? Most people don't like wild Pokémon in their homes. We would be kicked out before we could see their reaction, dude."

I thought of this, and then looked out the foyer's window. There was a big oak tree outside. I had an idea.

A few hours later, after we had settled in a good spot in the tree, and had cracked the window open to get a good sound flow, Tyler's truck came rolling into the driveway. The three siblings got out, and entered the house, none of them would suspect what would happen in the next few moments. "Whaddya know, Mom's been home." Michael said bleakly, glancing around at the foyer.

"She couldn't bother staying for too long, not even after what's happened." Mary said, adding the last few words in a hushed tone.

"Dude, Mary, what's up? You've been acting weird lately." Tyler said in his stupid tone of voice.

Mary looked away, and flipped her long blonde hair. "Nothing." She pushed past her brothers, and hurried upstairs, toward her room, no doubt. Tyler ran his fingers through his dirty blonde hair, and then pulled a phone out of his pocket. Michael simply looked at his tousled dark brown hair, and then at Tyler's. "Sometimes I wish I had blonde hair like yours."

"Why?"

"I don't know, I just don't like being reminded."

"Of?"

"Them." He said darkly, looking away.

"Ah."

I remembered that about Michael. He always wanted to be identical to Tyler, but it didn't happen. Instead, he got the dark, muddy brown hair of his mother and younger brother, both the rejects of the family.

There was a hysterical noise, which was mixed between exasperation, fear, and a sob, that came from Mary's room. Michael and Tyler glanced up the stairs to see Mary, her hair a mess, her make-up streaked, and clutching a picture. The picture from her room. She let out a wailing noise, and slumped to the floor, tears sliding down her face in a rhythmic way, only to destroy her make-up even more. Michael and Tyler jogged up the stairs, and Michael pried the picture from her hand. His eyes widened, and quickly said to the wailing girl, "Where the fuck did you find this?!"

Mary couldn't respond, she was sobbing and wailing too hard, she simply pointed toward her bedroom door, and then continued to sob. Tyler marched off to her bedroom, while Tyler tried to console his pitiful sister.

Droop gave me a worried look, and I simply returned a blank one. This would be a heart-wrenching scene if it wasn't for all the revenge relief I was getting. I thought that Droop's eyes could have been on the brim, but obviously he was keeping it down well.

Tyler returned with the other two pictures, and he said, "Whoever did this is one sick bitch."

He held up the other pictures, and promptly tore them up. Michael's eyes were wide, trying to get used to the craziness. He seemed fazed, but not as fazed as Mary. She managed to get a word out. "I-it's all o-our f-f-fault!" She sputtered, her hand going to her lips.

Tyler piped up. "What? That stupid idiot's suicide? He did that himself; we didn't do anything to it."

At this I was enraged, but I wasn't the only one. Mary stood, and looked at Tyler. In an instant her grief turned to fury, and she started to scream.

It was a bit vulgar, and many of the words were ones that are not to be put on any online story, but either way, the use of vocabulary was quite immense, and it ended with Mary back handing Tyler so hard he stumbled backward. And, just as it left his face, her fury returned to depression, and she ran out the front door, wailing and crying.

Michael still seemed fazed. His eyes wide, looking at the shredded newsprint. Tyler gave him a serious look. "Don't think for a minute that this is our fault, dude. It isn't." He pointed at Michael's face, before storming down the stairs. Michael continued to stare at the shredded paper, before shaking his head, gathering the paper, and tossing it in the garbage.

*****

I simply couldn't bear it. I had to sit down. I plopped down on the branch, and said, "How could that not work?"

Droop, who was now giving his worried look to me, said, "I think it worked on your sister, and it put a dent into Michael."

"That's not who it needed to hit the most." I said, putting ma paw to my head.

"Magnus, even if it didn't make him admit it, he still knows it at the back of his mind. He's just too stubborn to admit it."

I gave him a dirty look. "That was the whole point of the pictures!"

"You wanted it to hit your FAMILY, not just your brother! And it did that!"

"Not the one who needed it!"

"Magnus!" Droop yelled, grabbing me by the shoulders, and shaking me. "It did something! Stop thinking it didn't do ANYthing!"

I realized his logic, and calmed down. It DID do something at least, I had to admit it. I just had to do more to hit the other four enough to crack.

Droop let go of me, and sat down. "Should we go?"

I shook my head. "Let me stay here for just a little longer, I can find my way home." I said to him softly. "You can leave if you want."

Droop didn't argue, he gave me a final look, and jumped off the branch, leaving me to my solitude. I waited for him to leave, before silently crying. Why hadn't it hit harder?

*****

I apparently had fallen asleep on the branch, for I was woken by a drunken man staggering up the driveway. I straightened up, rubbed my eyes, and looked through the window. Michael and Tyler were watching TV, and Mary was not to be seen anywhere. I glanced down at the drunken blonde man stumble, catch himself on the side of the house, and make it through the front door. The boys looked up at their mess of a father, before returning their attention to the TV. The man piped up. "Where is she?" His finger pointed at the floor.

Tyler and Michael looked at one another, before Tyler asked, "Who?"

"Your Mother!" The man bellowed.

"She's not home." Michael said softly.

"When will she be back?" The man questioned, tilting to the right slightly in his drunk posture.

"Who knows?" Michael said. "She is barely home anyway, dad."

My ex-father took a swig from the bottle in his hand, I noticed it was harder liquor than what he normally drank.

"I think you should put that down…" Michael said worriedly, shrinking away from his father.

"Why?!" The man bellowed, throwing his arms in the air, and making Michael shrink back. He then found his courage, and stood to try to take the bottle. It didn't work, and he ended up getting kicked in the gut, sending him to a hump on the floor, Tyler winced at his brother, but looked away. The drunk slammed his bottle onto the table next to him, and yelled at the boy on the ground in front of him. "Want to try that again, asshole?!" Michael barely got to his knees, before receiving a blow to the face by his father's heavy black boot. Michael fell back, and clutched his nose, which had began to bleed.

Tyler stood, walked past his helpless brother and father, and went upstairs, as his father advanced. I felt helpless myself. I knew my father was a mean drunk, but I never saw Michael this weak.

There was a flash of golden blonde at the front door, and I saw Mary rush in the house. Just as the drunk man was about to smash his foot into his son, Mary grabbed the bottle off the table, and with some unknown force, swung it at her father's head.

The thick glass bottle exploded as it came into contact, and blood and glass sprinkled the floor, as the man fell to the ground. "Your son is _dead,_ and you didn't help him!" She screamed, clutching the shattered neck of the bottle. "He died a self inducing death, and you did nothing! _NOTHING_!!!!"

The man on the floor began to shake. I knew what that meant. I felt touched, and left at that moment. Not wanting to see more.

But I knew that I had been accepted by two people, at least.

*****

*****

*****

Woo! Finished! Did you like this chapter? Magnus got two people to accept his death, you got to see more of the mystery Plusle, and you got to see how his brothers can't be broken by simple pictures. What will it take to get them to break? And what about James' mother? What can Magnus do to make her realize her decisions? All of this will soon be answered in the later chapters, so keep reading! ;)

So, review with what you think of the chapter, and drop a line if you want to inscribe some potential characters, ideas, or thoughts. So, let me ask again, what did you think?


	10. Chapter 10

Hey….

Sorry I haven't posted in a while, you see, this annoying-ass virus decided to corrupt my computer, infect it, and basically make it a steaming zit full of coded mess and a whole buncha shit.

I didn't like it.

BUT, thankfully, we were able to deflect it away, using an ACTUAL virus scan that worked. Trust me, you never want that virus.

Anyway, as a little review, last chapter Magnus managed to make his Dad and sister accept him as dead, and realize what terrible people they were. Unfortunately, his brothers and mom did not feel the same way.

So, before I start to ramble, here's chappie 10.

**Chapter 10**

I sat there, taking it in. The lights had gone out long, long ago, yet I just stayed there. In the old oak tree in my old front yard. I felt so weird. There wasn't a way to describe it, really. I was bursting with happiness, yet the rational, 'good' side of me told me I shouldn't be a selfish little asshole.

But was I?

I didn't think so, but the little voice was shunning me. "You were giving an unfair revenge. You shouldn't play with their emotions! You aren't any better than they were to you! You don't deserve to feel happy."

My conscious self collided with it. "But I AM happy! If I didn't do this, they would never change, and who knows what would happen then! I would never be happy, even in my new life. I deserve to be happy."

"I'm not saying you don't deserve to BE happy, but FEELING happy by making others grieve is not what you do to get it. You deserve to BE happy, but after this, you don't deserve to FEEL happy. I refuse to let you be."

"Why are you telling me NOT to feel? I can ignore you all I want!" I plugged my ears, singing slightly, trying not to hear anything.

It didn't work. "No you CA-AN'T!"

"Oh, REAL mature, rational James."

"You're one to talk, conscious James."

"Fuck you."

"No, fuck YOU."

"That's not very nice."

"May I repeat? _You're one to talk_."

I made myself stop talking to myself. (What a weird sentence) Once the rational me had shut up, I calmed down, and climbed down the tree trunk, yawning. "Yet another night up late."

Out of the tree, I walked up the street, enjoying the cool early spring breeze. It made me shiver, and for once in my Pokémon life, I was cold.

I smiled, thinking, 'You're such a fool, James.' I let out a sigh, and continued to walk. The sidewalk began to hurt my paws, so I jumped into the grass, and let the cool dew that was beginning to form cling to my legs. Sometimes there could be an advantage to being this short.

Have you ever had a moment where you wished your life was a musical, so you can just spontaneously break into song and dance, and NOBODY would feel awkward?

Neither had I, 'cept for now.

Was I really this happy over just two people accepting me as dead? When I worded it that way it sounded overly awkward, but it was a rational thought!

Or so _I_ thought, but yet again, rational James told me it was a dumb idea.

Even I don't like the rational me.

I walked through a garden patch, smelling some of the petunias as I went along. Was I lost? I didn't think so at the moment, but then again, when was the last time I went to my old house and not get escorted home by an ambulance? Or Droop, for that matter. I frowned slightly. I wasn't lost, this was probably one of the smallest towns in Johto, it shouldn't have been so hard to find my way home. I yawned again. I glanced up at the sky, and watched the stars for a few moments. A breeze picked up, and I shivered again. "Jeez, it's really windy tonight…"

I got up, and began to walk again. There was a simple way to do this, go to the 'rich' part of the neighborhood, and then just find my home. Simple enough, right?

Wrong.

It turns out that I didn't even know what part I was in right now. The houses were either middle or upper class, and I didn't know which. "Dammit, Droop, you were supposed to come pick me up…" I muttered to myself, glaring at all the houses.

Sitting down on my sorry ass, I thought of a plan. If I didn't know where I was, technically I could just find a good landmark I could remember. But there wasn't one, really. Crap. There weren't any parks or buildings nearby… Except one.

The school could be pretty creepy looking at night.

Especially when all the lights are out.

And when you know there are predatory birds through out the grounds.

Creepy was kinda understating it! I kept my eyes completely peeled open, and I skittered across the playground. Glancing into the trees, I spotted nothing. A good sign, or so I thought. I didn't know much about my species, except they are rodent-like, and could quite possibly become dinner for a hungry enough bird. I fled the playground, and hid near a street lamp nearby. I had to get across the schoolyard now. Not so hard, right? From there, I could find Lily's home, and soon be in a nice, fluffy soft mattress. Not a spooky school underneath the only lit street lamp. This was how horror movies started. My mind began to play the horror movie soundtrack as I crawled through the schoolyard.

I was pretty sure that the wind was getting colder. It was starting to hurt, almost. I stayed in the shadow of the building itself as I crawled through the grass next to it. The dew on it clung to my underbelly, and I shivered again. Peering around the corner, I saw nothing more than the front of the school, the small quad, and yet another lone street lamp. I furrowed my brow at the cliché, but continued through the schoolyard nevertheless. The wind began to ferociously blow, and flung me forward a bit. I was pounded by what felt like angry force, but I couldn't tell. All I knew was that it made me scared.

I yelped as the wind smacked into me, and sent me tumbling head-over-heels into the street lamp. It had a good Minun dent in it now.

"Ow." I muttered, rubbing the back of my head. But out of nowhere, a strange horned sheet barreled into me, sending me, yet again, tumbling through the grass. I winced as I poked the point where the sheet collided with me, before I jumped up to face my attacker. It was nowhere to be seen. I narrowed my eyes, searching for it.

I don't really know how to describe what happened next. To put it bluntly, my head was suddenly enveloped in some warm, wet place, and I was flailing like a moron.

"AAAAUGH!!!! GET IT OFF!!! GET IT OFF!!!" I wailed, yanking at whatever was on me. The cloth was wispy, and I couldn't get a very good grasp at it. Realizing my stupidity, I began to charge, and released a thunder at my attacker.

That seemed to work, as it released my soaked head, but it also made it mad, seeing as whatever it was fired another powerful wind at me. Still blind from the attack, I wiped my eyes, and tried to find my current foe. I saw the weird purply wind come toward me, and I endured the strange sensation again, before catching a slight glance of the attacker again, before getting the powerful spike to the chest. I attempted to fire a good discharge at it, but that failed miserably, seeing as I was still attached to the rampaging thing. We hit the brick wall, and I felt the cloth slide through me. It wasn't a very pleasant experience. I quickly recognized the Pokémon. It was a Shuppet.

I ran toward the street lamp, coaxing it out into the open. Obeying to my thoughts, it flew out of the building, and rocketed toward me, its head spike pointed at me. I flung my fist forward, and as it collided with the spike, the electrical blast enveloped it, but the force built into the spike came into me as well. And just like ragdolls, we flew away from one another, tumbling toward the ground, and skipping like a stone across the quad into another patch of grass. My eyes whirled for a few seconds, before I leapt to my feet, and jumped out of the grass patch. I was greeted by a lump of black energy. I was like having a pillow of cream cheese set on fire flung at your head, and then having it absorb into your skin. No matter the feeling, I was back in the grass patch again. "The fuck is this thing?!" I muttered, heaving several breaths before leaping out of the patch, once again. This time, I used a discharge, and I hit the Shuppet. It cried out, and flopped toward the ground, before retaliating with another head cling. It hurled toward me, before opening its maw and latching to me. It tried to crunch my skull, (and it did a good job of it, too) but I used a Thunder Fang on its tongue.

Have you ever had a live wire attached to your tongue? Or have you tried putting an AC battery to your braces and watching the sparks fly off? Well, both hurt, although the former had to hurt much more, because the Shuppet wailed, and let go of my head, and flopped to the ground. This time, it didn't get up. All that was left was a sheet, with a few holes cut into it.

I panted, and looked at the cloth. "The hell?"

I gingerly touched it. The fabric was silky smooth, and oh so cool. I picked it up, and felt an intense ominous feeling in it. Obviously the spirit of the Shuppet was still inside it. I looked around. Nobody was here.

The cloth vibrated slightly. Feeling sudden mercy, I gathered up the rest of the cloth, and carried it out to the street. Avoiding the light, I began to walk up the street, still holding the sheet. "Oh, James, you're feeding yourself Ponyta shit." I muttered to myself. Once again, like an annoying little ass-munch, my rational side said, "It is the right thing to do, you know. Even if it attacked you in vicious blood, and wanted your soul."

"Thanks for the wonderful pep."

"Always here for that, darling."

I rolled my eyes. My sleep deprived state was going to kill me. It was making all sorts of dumb decisions that the perfectly sleep content James wouldn't make. And although I was thinking this through, I couldn't let go of the sheet. I couldn't just drop the unconscious Shuppet body and let the wind take it away. Granted, that would be a rude awakening, to find one's self wrapped and tangled thoroughly in a tree, but that's what happens.

I stopped, and then looked down at what I was holding. That was something that didn't make the most sense. Why was I holding a SHUPPET? They were supposed to be about I-don't-know-how-many miles north from Johto! Hoenn was definitely closer than, say, Sinnoh, but damn! How far had this thing traveled?

That's what also kept me standing there like a dolt. Was I holding a male or female? I would've found it quite awkward to be holding a guy, but overly cliché and uncomfortable to be holding a female.

I bit my lip, before continuing. For now, it was just gonna be that. It.

*****

I was guessing 2 AM when I got home. Sneaking through the hole in the fence, and yanking the still unconscious cloth through it as well, I snuck around to Droop's bush, and heard some light snoring. That indicated he was somewhat asleep. Deciding to play a trick on him, I draped the cloth over my head, making sure the holes for its eyes were facing mine as well. I giggled in anticipation. Then, on my tip-paws, I crept around to where he was perched, and took the biggest inhale I could, before letting out a high pitched wail similar to the Shuppet's. That seemed to wake him up, as he levitated a foot in the air and screamed, "AAAAUGH! PLEASE DON'T EAT MY SOUL!!!!"

Droop fell back into the bush and stared wide eyed at me. I laughed out loud and said, "Oh my Mew! You are the biggest sucker in the WORLD!!!"

Droop blinked. "Magnus?"

I cackled, and then said, "Yup! And boy, did you fall for that one!"

He blinked several more times, and then rubbed his eyes with his wings. "What the hell are you wearing?"

I stopped cackling, and then sheepishly said, "A Shuppet…"

His eyes widened.

"What? It's a little tight, sure, but it was worth it."

His eyes didn't shrink, but he whispered, "Since when did your eyes glow like that? I thought they were supposed to be brown…"

"Well, I-" I paused, "Wait, what?"

"Your eyes are glowing blue." He said, looking at me like I was stupid. "And purple, and a tad bit yellow."

"Uh, I don't think they- URK!!!" I gagged, as my neck tightened suddenly, and I began to rise off the ground. The sheet fluttered, as the Shuppet revived. I flailed my legs, trying to get out of it, but that failed miserably. I was stuck, in a Shuppet.

Once realizing what was going on, Droop gulped, and remained silent as the Shuppet glanced around. It was at that moment when her eyes shrank into a glare, and then violently shook. "What the hell are you doing?! Get out of me!!!" It yelled, flailing and trying to get me out of it. I was gagging, for most of my air pipe was getting choked, and it didn't help that my body was getting flung around like a ragdoll. Droop watched helplessly as the both of us swirled around the yard, smacking into every object there was.

"OW! Stop- URK- hurling me into this shit!" I yelled, gagging along the way.

"You deserve it for knocking me out and then wearing me as a costume!" It yelled back, continuing to flail its body.

"That's what you- URK- get for trying to eat my face!"

It stopped, and then abruptly began to concentrate. It felt like my head was filling with tons of gas. My eyes felt like popping out.

There was a quiet opening and closing of a door, and then I saw a light from a flashlight getting shone at us. The Shuppet screeched, and I fell out of it as the Shuppet fell unconscious again. I coughed and gasped for air, before hearing the sheet get caught. The flashlight beam followed me down, and I was bathed in a silhouette of a pink Skitty flashlight cover. I gazed at my rescuer, and saw her, standing in her Pink footy PJ's, and a plush pink blanket tied around her neck like a cape. Droop retreated into his bush, and Vanessa gazed down at me with disdain. "I thought you would be better than needing a five-year old to rescue you at three in the morning." She huffed, picking up the sheet and holding it in front of her. A stupid grin swept across her face in an instant, and she pranced away, instantly forgetting being annoyed at me. I had to dash to keep up with her, she was quite fast, the little bugger. Her cape flapped behind her, it was almost perfectly flat she was running so fast.

I followed her up to her overly pink room, where once I was inside, she shut the door, and then looked down at me, her grin still from ear to ear. She bent down and grabbed me, and carried me to her bed. I blinked, and she put me on the floor next to it. I looked up at her stupidly. "What are you doing?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. She bent down and lifted up the bed skirt. My eyes widened as at least eight pairs of glowing red eyes looked my direction. They began to whisper and cackle in excitement, before Vanessa pulled out her flashlight and shone it on them. The Banettes, who were a little more durable to the light than the Shuppet had been, screamed in terror. "IT'S THE EVIL ONE!!!!"

"TO THE CORNER!!!"

They all screamed and went to huddle in the corner. I looked up at Vanessa in shock. "What?" She asked, eyebrows high. "So I junked a few toys, what of it?" I looked at the sheet that was still in her hands and her eyes followed. On the sight of the sheet, her face lit up again, and she bounced away from the bed, (where sobs were starting to issue from) and over to a knocked over laundry basket. Once nearby, she said, "This is where I put these guys." She said, holding up the sheet, and pushing it into the laundry bin, along with a toy from a nearby pile. "After a few months they end up under the bed." She said, her stupid grin still plastered to her face. "Although sometimes a few will just end up there by themselves. But it's most annoying when they spend all night whispering or crying."

I looked back to the sobbing bed, and then nodded. I could see how that could get annoying. Vanessa bounced back to the bed, where she promptly curled up and fell asleep. I shook my head, before gazing back into the laundry bin. The eyes were back, and they were even angrier than before. I gulped.

"Once I'm out of this, you're soul and body and mind and conscience and thoughts and memories will all be MINE…." It said menacingly. I cringed, before recoiling. "Not before the five-year-old gets in the way. If she can shatter a whole bunch of your evolutions then you are certainly not going to do much."

Her eyes softened, before drifting down to a sad form. "I'm sorry, I get a little hot-headed…"

"I know the feeling."

"It's just that, I hate losing." She said, evil tone returning.

"I'm sorry."

"But of all things, why wear me as a costume?" She asked suddenly.

This caught me off guard. "Uh…."

"SPIT IT OUT OR I'LL SWALLOW YOUR SOUL!!!!!" She ferociously screamed, instantly popping my bubble.

I sprang back, and flinched. She recoiled in the same way. "I'm SO sorry! I just burst randomly…"

"I was just trying to get a laugh from my friend! Jeez!"

Vanessa grunted in her sleep, and muttered, "I don't want marmalade on my French toast…"

The Shuppet's eyes furrowed in curiosity. "Is that girl insane?"

"Closer than you'd think."

"I don't believe we had a very good introduction."

"Well, how do you suppose we remedy that?" I asked, smiling stupidly at her.

"Don't get cocky, Minun, or I'll rip it, and all other things off." She growled.

"Magnus." I said, holding out a paw.

"Gale. Pleasant to meet you, Magnus."

"Pleasure's mine, Gale." I said, smiling warmly.

*****

*****

*****

I'm reeeeeally sorry for taking so damn long on this chapter update…. I know how to judge my updates, but I had writer's block and lack of ambition…. Plus several plot bunnies, but one of those is already up. And for those who even read this, its about Pokémon this time. You may or may not like it. (Shelby)

Oh yeah, and if you don't mind, take time out of your day and tell some friends about this story, and fanfiction altogether. Send them a quick, 'read this story' or something. I get better ambition the more people I have waiting for an update. (hintity hint hint)

But, that's all for now, until next chapter, (which may not be here for a while) BYEZ!!! X3


	11. Failed Condundrums

Alright, should I recap what happened last chapter?

We got a new character, Gale, the Shuppet. She's rather hot headed, and usually on-edge. In other words, she can randomly go ape-shit on you.

Magnus has been warned…

I think I'll begin naming chapters now, tell me what you think of it!

And now I'll stop delaying you from the chapter, and actually get on with it. Enjoi!

**Chapter 11:**

**Failed Conundrums**

The alarm rang and I groggily opened my eyes. Lily was still napping, even through the heavy alarm. I nudged her with a paw. "Lily, the alarm is ringing."

She didn't move.

"Mmph. Lily, the alarm is _ringing._" I muttered again.

And once again, she didn't make a motion to get it. It was at this point that the alarm, having not been turned off, began to screech LOUDER for the person to turn it off. I lazily crawled over to Lily's face, and said, "Lily, the alarm, is, _RINGING!"_ I yelled into her face.

At this, her eyes cracked open into a glare, and she muttered incoherent rage at me. I returned it. She shut her eyes, and turned away. I growled. This was NOT going to work for me. So, I sat down, plugged my ears, and began to repeat, "I KNOW A SONG THAT GETS ON EV'RY BODY'S NERVES, EV'RY BODY'S NERVES, EV'RY BODY'S NERVES, I KNOW A SONG THAT GETS ON EV'RY BODY'S NERVES AND THIS IS HOW IT GO-OOES!"

An unnoticed palm came from nowhere, and flung me off the bed. I landed on the floor, head and ears ringing from the alarm and the bash to the head. Lily sat up, and shouted, "It's freaking Saturday, Maggie! Why can't you let me SLEEP?"

"I was about to ask the SAME, Lily! Turn off the damned alarm!"

She obliged to this, and returned to her original position in the bed. I casually went back to it, and hopped on, careful to avoid her arm length. Once I managed to crawl up on it and get relatively close, Lily kicked her leg out, and sent me, guess where, back to the floor. "Nope! You lost that privilege, Maggie. You ain't getting on."

"Must I go back to what I was doing before?" I asked casually to the teenager in bed. She didn't respond. To this, I took a deep breath. "I KNOW A-"

Where exactly did she get such a hard pillow? And a good shot?

Who knew?

But what _I_ knew was that I was flattened by a pillow-rock, and my head hurt even worse. I glared up at the bed. That was it. I had gotten beaten up by a sheet last night, and got less sleep than normal. Lily may have been a previous crush, but she was gonna GET IT NOW.

"I'll bet you can't keep that up!" I yelled at her from the floor.

She did, unfortunately. This pillow happened to be softer, though. "Maggie, shut up!" Lily yelled from her bed.

"Nope!" I yelled. "You LOST that privilege!" A devious smile curved my face.

I really should have learned by then that Lily had what seemed to be an infinite amount of pillows in her bed, as another collided with me. From underneath it, I yelled, "HOW IN HELL, do you have this kind of aim?" I pushed the pillow off me, as Lily got out of bed. She walked over to me, picked me up, and threw me out of her room, before slamming the door shut. I glared up at it, before standing up. "Well that was rude." I muttered, dusting myself off. The alarm clock from the other side of the door rang again, and I heard uncontrolled obsanities come from it.

"You deserve it…" I muttered again, sluggishly going down the stairs toward the kitchen. One quick cabinet-quest later, I went to the couch with a box of cookies, casually hidden by healthy foods. Obviously someone didn't want a certain five-year-old to find them.

I found the TV remote, and sat it next to me as I opened the box. I clicked the button marked "on", and turned down the volume as I began to munch on the cookies.

The news channel was left on, and I was too lazy to reach over and click to something else. They were finishing up on a story.

"-and the only clue was a bloody bottle of air freshener. On to our next story, the Johto Bug Competition will be held at the national park today, exclusive coverage and judging will be held here at noon. Be sure to tune in."

Gale had wandered into the room silently, and occupied the seat next to me. I offered her the box, and several cookies hovered out. I brought my attention back to the TV. "For weather today, we expect rain showers moving north today, so those down south will have clear skies by the afternoon."

"We had rain?" I asked Gale.

She said nothing, but the sky outside flashed, and I heard pattering against the windows. Damn those guys are good.

I casually looked to Gale to start small talk, only to find an empty seat and a few half-eaten cookies. "Gale?" I asked to the empty space.

"Huh." I turned my head back to the tv, only to see none other than the Shuppet, not even an inch from my face, with a devious smile glued to her mouth.

As any rational thing would react, I jumped about eight feet into the air and screamed.

Upon getting my breath back, I gave her a dirty look. "What the Hell, Gale!"

Grin still plastered to her, she replied, "You really ought to be expecting that, Magnus."

I grumbled, and stuffed another cookie into my mouth. A commercial burst forward from the TV at that moment, and caught my attention.

"For all those wannabe trainers, listen up! Tryouts for a free, honorary Pokédex and trainer's card will be issued at Violet City gym! Travel the land, collect badges, gain friends and lifelong partners, and experience your own adventure, FREE! Tryouts will be held for three days coming late spring. Bring your Pokémon and get ready for action!"

I sat back on the couch. "Obviously they want busier gyms this summer." I muttered. It was rather quiet the previous year, and that managed to rip apart the economy in most of Johto. I didn't mind, all that much. A whole bunch of ten-year olds who had no clue how to operate a Pokéball running throughout town wasn't exactly helpful for the rest of us. It was just a nagging reminder that if you didn't become a trainer, you were stuck with school the rest of your life. (Literally in my case) I didn't like walking into a Pokémart and seeing nothing on the shelves except potions and antidotes. It only made me feel like I was missing out on the world around me.

And since I never had any money for too long, as most of it was mugged from me by my brothers or spent on art supplies, I could never save up several hundred yen for a single pokeball, nor buy a Pokémon by itself.

Not that I could leave either. It required even more money to get a Pokédex and Trainer's Card. All of that money was being spent on alcohol. So there was no chance I would have ever left my own home.

I fazed back into reality as a peck came from the window. I turned to see Droop on the other side, his eyes were huge, and they were fixed on the box of cookies next to me. I rolled my eyes, and grabbed several, before jumping up to the window, and handing them to the puppy faced Droop. It lit up tremendously as he snarfed them down.

He poked his head inside, and looked at Gale, who was absentmindedly munching the cookies whilst gazing past the TV. "Who's that?" He asked.

"'That', has a name." Gale said angrily, turning her head backward and glaring at the now frightened Pidgey.

"Gale." I informed to him.

"That's MISS Gale to you, buddy." She glowered, pointing a cookie at Droop's face. She crunched into it, not severing the face she was giving him.

Once recovering from his shock and getting his face back to an unfrozen state, Droop turned to me. "Why is MISS Gale here?" He asked, emphasizing the pretense.

Her glare only intensified, and she slithered up to the window. I could've sworn there was a huge vein pulsing on her head, but that was probably just an illusion. She pushed her face up against his, and their eyes were practically touching. No word had left her mouth, but Droop's eyes were wider than dinner plates. I began to bite into another cookie as the real Saturday morning cartoon materialized in front of me.

The crunch made Gale's eyes swivel to me, and I stopped dead in my tracks. I gulped, and in a split second, the Shuppet hurled into me. But instead of pushing me, or passing through me, she just went straight INSIDE me. Believe me, the unpleasantness of something else inside your body doesn't feel right at all. I gave the horrified Droop a worried look, before my arm moved by some unknown force, sending me hurling toward him.

Droop had no time to react, as when we collided, we were both sent tumbling into the rainy backyard. The odd sensation inside me concentrated to my head, and I felt myself lift to my feet.

* * *

I watched in horror as the Minun before me turned its head round several times, before smiling with wickedly sharp teeth he hadn't seen on it before. The voice that came from it was some mutated mixture of Magnus's and Gale's. "I am the spawn of Giratina! I will destroy the souls of all those who defy our bountiful leader!"

The Minun let out an insane hysteria of laughter, as his head swiveled back to normal. His mouth opened, and out spilled the dark Grey Shuppet. Magnus fell back, obviously unconscious from the whole being possessed thing. I looked up at Gale, and we stared at one another for a long time, before she began to giggle uncontrollably. "Did you fall for that?" She asked, cocking her head to the side cutely.

I was pretty sure my bottom beak hit the ground at that moment. "Why did you do that?" I shouted, my feathers puffing from being so flustered.

Gale giggled again. "Why not? It was funny to play with you guys like that." She gave me another cute smile, before looking down at the fainted Minun behind her. "Granted, he may be a little sore at me when he wakes up, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it!" She floated back through the window, and I heard her charging into the cookies. I shook my head. What a weird group of Pokémon we were…

* * *

About five hours later, after waking up and giving a strict talking to Gale, (which most likely wasn't heard) I was curled up on the island counter in the kitchen, watching with bored interest as Lily wandered around the kitchen, apron firmly tied around her, cookbook in hand. She was turning the pages slowly, reading each one slowly and thoroughly. Her face lit up as she stopped on one page, and she turned to me. "I've got it!"

Lily immediately set to work getting out ingredients listed on the page. I was surprised that nobody but Vanessa knew (or saw) Gale, as she quite often would just flutter by them, and they wouldn't notice at all. It was quite spooky how ghosts could move like that. Currently, her head was poking (Ha! Pun) out of the counter next to me, and she was giving the excited teenager a curious glare. "What the hell is she so excited about? I thought cooking was one of the stupidest arts ever."

I looked at her thoughtfully. "Well, she thinks that there is ONE art out there for her, and she just has to find it."

Gale raised a curious ridge above her eye, which I expected was her brow. "Say what?"

"She isn't really good at the arts one usually thinks of. For instance, drawing, she can't even draw stick figures. Singing, like nails on a chalkboard. Dancing, about wiped Vanessa out a window. Playing piano, imagine beating the strings with a rusted hammer."

"Damn." Gale muttered, continuing to watch Lily gather the ingredients sloppily to the large mixing bowl. I stopped to watch as well, I had noticed the cookbook lying open, and across the top of the page that took two pages of precise instructions, read 'Irish Crème Cake Flambé'.

This was going to be interesting.

"Anyway…" I returned my attention to Gale. "She is now testing her abilities in the kitchen, although at the end of this, her mother will probably never let her enter one ever again." I said nervously, eying the amount of flour Lily was playing with.

"I'd say let's get some snacks, but we ran out of cookies." Gale said sadly.

"No thanks to you, that was a big assed box too!"

Her face turned a hue of red. "Sorry…" And at the sudden realization of her apology, and the stunned look upon my face, her face contorted into a well-known horrifying glare, and she growled, "Never expect that again…"

She shrank down into the counter, and disappeared. I blinked at the spot her horn once was, before turning back to the macabre in front of me. Lily was carefully pouring the Irish Cream into the mixer, being uncannily careful.

I took a look at the debris around the kitchen, not too much, yet.

I hopped over to the counter she was working on, and peered into the mixer. A thick, tan-cream paste was being whipped around, making the batter look irresistible. I then felt the back of my head getting bored into, and I glanced up to see Lily with the exact same horrifying face that Gale had not two minutes ago. She grabbed me by the scruff of my neck, and plopped my bunny-thing ass back onto the island counter. After giving me a good, long stare, she went back to the mixer.

"She'd make a GREAT Shuppet."

I jumped, and then looked beside me to see Gale, with a dreamy expression on her face.

"No kidding." I said, a little annoyed. "She is just amazing at appearing right next to you randomly and scaring the living shit out of you."

"Hence why she would make a good one."

I rolled my eyes at her lack of sensing sarcasm, or ability to overlook it. Lily had just finished with the last ingredient, which I couldn't see, and was pouring the contents into a large Bundt tin. Our attention was pulled away from whatever sort of conversation we had, just to watch. Lily scraped at the dregs of the mixing bowl with her spatula, before glazing over the contents to make it smooth. After a quick glance to the cookbook, she cautiously set the pan onto the oven tray, slid it in, and closed the door, being careful about shutting it. Her fingers slid down the page, and when they found what they were looking for, she typed something into the oven screen, and it beeped with a reassuring tone. Lily took a deep breath, before turning to me. "And in exactly forty minutes, we will have Irish Crème Cake Flambé!" She said in acute happiness. "I think I've finally found my art, Maggie!" She pranced the one step toward me, lifted me off the counter, and gave me a cuddly hug, before dropping me back onto the counter, and exiting the kitchen to tell her so far success to everyone in the household.

"This is infuriating." Gale remarked irritably. "Am I REALLY that invisible?"

"Well, she may have just ignored you for the time being." I said thoughtfully, tapping my chin with a paw. Gale grumbled noises of hatred, before going silent. One thing I didn't get about Shuppet was that they could just float in one spot, unmoving, for what looked like days. Their eyes looked glazed over, as if they weren't really in that world at all. They just, stared…

It creeped me out.

I looked at the oven, and in a split second, the oven door burst open, sending a thick, steaming wall of batter all over the kitchen, and parts of the dining room, as that's where the island counters led to. Unfortunately, that also meant that Gale and I were both covered in boiling hot cake batter, which seemed to be on fire. I blinked, and then screeched, as I felt my fur and skin melt off, or what it felt like. Gale simply disappeared, looking painfully annoyed, leaving me alone and wailing on the island counter.

It wasn't long before Lily and her mother came rushing down to the huge explosion. Her mother simply looked at the enormous mess before them, before her eyes rolled back in her head, and she fainted. Lily's bottom lip trembled, but it stopped as she looked over the mess. "What did I do wrong? I added all the ingredients! Perfect measurements!" She yelled, slipping into the kitchen. I wiped my eyes of the hot goo, and saw her pick up something. She wiped it off, and I saw what it was. It was the alcohol used to make the 'flambé' part. That must've been the last unknown ingredient.

Good mew, even _I_ knew that wasn't supposed to be put into the batter. I glared at my mental owner, as Vanessa and her father came into the room. Both their expressions were the same, shock and awe, but their reactions were totally different. Lily's father sighed and went to get a mop, but Vanessa did just the opposite…

"CAKE WORLD!" She bellowed with utter excitement. And just as her arms flailed around, she dove into the mess, and began to slide around in it. Lily put the alcohol down, and began to clean the counters, ignoring her ecstatic sister. She looked up glumly, and saw me. I gave her a glare, and she clapped her hands to her mouth. "Oh my mew! Are you okay, Maggie?"

"Partially melted, but incredibly dirty otherwise." I sarcastically remarked.

She gingerly picked me up, and began to wipe the batter off of me. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Vanessa smear herself with a large amount, and groan and stumble around. "I am a cake monster!" She growled. "I will eat your sugar!"

Lily ignored her, and left the room, making sure she didn't track more cake mess into the hallway. She sighed when we got to the bathroom, and turned on the sink. "I don't think I'm going to find any art that's good for me..."

I didn't have anything to say. There was nothing TO say.

Neither of us were truly happy on the inside.

* * *

No… its true. :(

But can Magnus fix that?

Read and Review please! I honestly don't have any at all! D:


	12. Planning

Holy damn! Has it been a long time! Sorry for the break, all. I really am. :( but fortunately I have access to a computer and not so much depression anymore! :D *eye twitch*

So, to make it up to you, here is my absolutely NORMAL chapter! Yup, that's right. Aren't you all so special to have someone who gives you something normal after a long break? But this may or may not be a good chapter for you guys. There will be things that I took from each of your very few reviews, (funny and sad and ironic that I get tons of reviews on the 'chapter' of my grandma dying, when really that's the chapter that I DON'T want that kind of thing, but thank you all) so expect some fun things this chapter. Oh, and I wanted to tell you all, I officially moved my finish date of this story to hopefully this december. That's all the way I'm gonna push it. If I'm not done by then, I'll never be. So, you should be good little fans and PUSH ME THROUGH THE DIRT TO GET THERE! WHO WANTS THE ENDING TO MINUS ONE? Well, probably none of you, but all stories have to come to an end, yeah? Oh, and I also have another story in my head, but I'm not sure if I should turn it into its own story, or just make it into a character on this story, thus extending it. What's your guys's opinion? Tell me now, or it WILL be it's own story!

Wow, I rambled… I'm sorry! Well, I won't keep you here any longer. Here's your chapter which you all deserve. ;)

**Chapter 12**

**Planning**

"Mew dammit, Droop! I JUST put that domino down!"

We were out on Lily's roof, and like you probably imagine, I was carefully putting dominoes on the shingles. Its rather hard to stand these little buggers up, if you've never tried.

"Heh heh heh. Sorry, Magnus, but you have to admit, it's funny to ruin someone's hard work."

"Like what you did to the neighbor's window again?" I glared up at him, as I was down at eye level trying to get the domino up correctly. And yes, Droop managed to fling another rock at snobby neighbor's beautiful stained glass window. They fired their imported workers and hired new ones.

"Well, the whole them firing their work crew wasn't exactly necessary." Droop ruffled his feathers, looking away from me. He felt extremely guilty for doing that, they did feed him most mornings anyway.

"Whatever. I'm just saying, you and your pranks can go a little far. I was flattened like a pancake by a Fearow because of one. You off all pokemon should know that Gust hits thirty times stronger on a flying enemy."

"Hey, he came because I STOLE something from him." I rolled my eyes at this comment, but he continued. "And besides, whose fault is it that we have an insane bipolar flying sheet with eyes?"

"That was a prank gone wrong." I pointed a digit at his face. "There's a difference between intentional and accidents."

"Exactly. It was an accident that they got fired."

"But it was INTENTIONAL to break the window."

"Like how it was _intentional_ to scare me, and an _accident_ that we got miss stab-with-a-fondue-skewer."

"Its not my fault you provoked her on Fondue night."

Droop ruffled his feathers again. "I only stole a cookie from her hand or whatever she uses to hold things."

"Have you _ever_ linked all these accidents to that verb?" I asked, giving him a questioning look.

"No. I have blissfully disregarded them."

I rolled my eyes, before growling at the domino. "This stupid thing just wont stay up." I threw it off the roof, and it clattered across the street into the drainage ditch.

"I certainly hope Mr. Lily's dad won't miss his fine ivory domino." Droop muttered, cringing at the splash it made.

"He'll probably think Vanessa ate it or something." I muttered, sliding down the roof, and back through Lily's propped open window.

Droop landed on the windowsill. "Is something wrong? I haven't seen you this pissy since someone mentioned your last life. Was the domino thing THAT big a deal?"

I glared at him. I really didn't want to think about the others, and how they still hadn't accepted me as dead. I was already thinking about it, but I had no way of doing anything about it. A sigh escaped my lungs. "I have absolutely no clue to get them to accept it. There is just no way to get my soulful vengeance."

"Did I just hear VENGEANCE?"

Droop and I looked up at the doorway where Gale was floating. An enormous grin was stretched across her face. "That's my Favorite word next to revenge, spite, curse, haunt, possess, maim, stab, destroy, sabotage, horror, macabre, revenge, envy, greed, gluttony, lust, pride, sloth, wrath, misery, anger, slice, sever, revenge, evil, scream, agony, hell, death, destruction, mortality, Magnus, and of course, REVENGE!"

"Uh, I think you said revenge several times…" Droop said quietly.

"I know. It has multiple meanings."

"It has that many?" Droop asked curiously. But Gale ignored him, as she floated over to me, and sat directly in front of my face, with her grin (that reminded me of a certain sea sponge on TV that Vanessa enjoyed watching) still fully intact.

"So. Magnus. What may I offer my services to you for? If it involves Droop, that plan is already in action."

"You have a plan for me?" Droop asked, but again he was ignored.

"No, it doesn't involve Droop." I said, slightly annoyed.

"Well, you don't have to worry. I planned that out anyway and its already on its course."

"WHAT is on it's course?"

"I know that. I just wanted some sort of revenge-"

"That's my favorite word! Of course that's next to greif, pain, failure-"

"GALE! I need your help to get my old family to finally accept my death! That's all! I don't need a list of your favorite words!"

"Well you could have just said so." Gale said happily. "There's no need to shout." She floated out of the room. "I'll come up a plan for you. All you have to do is comply."

Her head poked back through the door. "Do you want any of them to wind up dead or mortally injured?"

"No…"

Gale dissappeared, leaving Droop and I alone. He looked nervously down at me. "Do you really think she's planned something for me?"

I ignored him, and got back on the roof. I knew I should've trusted Gale, but I still had a feeling that something not so happy would happen. Another sigh escaped my lungs. It was happening again. That feeling of sadness that seemed to haunt me ever since I had been alive.

To distract myself, I looked out past the backyard, through Route 30. There weren't any people on the roads whatsoever. I closed my eyes. What could I describe myself as? Lonely maybe?

Yeah. I guess that could fit.

Lonely.

Sad.

I opened my eyes to a blurry backround. "Ugh." I mumbled, sitting up and wiping my eyes clear of the tears that formed there. But what my eyes opened to wasn't Lily's rooftop. I wasn't viewing Route 30 anymore.

It was dark.

It was rocky.

I was still lonely.

But I wasn't me… This wasn't my body.

I gasped, and looked down at myself. My body was brown, but I had a lighter belly. My feet had slight claws, and so did my arms. Was I holding something? I couldn't tell, it was too dark…

I felt up and down what I was holding. Upon realization of what the object was, I yelped, and tossed it. I had just been holding a femur bone.

But once I tossed it, I suddenly had a desire to go get it again. It was mine! Well, it wasn't my _bone_, per se, but it belonged to me. I stood, and hurried over to where the bone was. I picked it up, and hugged it. But when it clunked against my head, I didn't feel it touch my skin. I felt like I had some sort of helmet on. I gulped, and felt what was on my head.

It was a skull.

But I wanted it on. I needed it on. It belonged to me, just like the femur did. But whose was it? It belonged to someone close, I knew that. It made me feel lonely. Lonely.

I knew what I was.

I opened my eyes to see Route 30 again. But it was gray, and wetness was coming down from the sky. I smiled, and wiped my eyes. "Hello again, Raikou."

"Hello again, little one. Interesting spot to sit in the middle of the day, isn't it?" The magestic beast placed a paw around me. "Now, tell me why you feel so lonely. You have friends, don't you?"

"Yes, but-"

"Then why are you lonely? James, you must know that they care for you. You are not alone."

"But I feel alone." I said quietly.

"It's natural, James. I know that you will feel this way even if you know you aren't. You will feel this pain until your task is complete."

"I tried. And I failed."

Raikou sighed. "Child, you may have not gotten exactly what you wanted, but you didn't fail."

"What does that mean?"

"You have to think of more than just one thing to get people to accept you, James. Some souls may be harder to break than others."

I sighed. "Well, can you answer me something?"

Raikou nodded.

"Was it you who gave me that, vision?"

He smiled. "You aren't alone, James. You haven't learned to open your heart to others yet."

And with that, the world's color returned, and the wetness came down on me.

Raikou was gone.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "How do I open my heart?"

I got off the roof and out of the rain. Only more confused than ever.

Upon entering the house, I was swiftly greeted by none other than Gale. "You are going to love my plan."

I took a step back. "Okay. I'm all ears."

The plan was actually quite simple, not to mention non-violent. That was probably a first for Gale. Hence why it took the cunning misstress several hours to figure out. Otherwise she would have a plan in seconds. Stab them through the eye with hot pokers, chop off every limb piece by piece, humiliate them, rub lemons and salt on their wounds, and then let them bleed out on hot coals.

I had to reassure Droop he wasn't going to die tonight.

Gale's plan was as follows:

Since Gale is only a simple ghost pokemon, and one that wasn't incredibly powerful, she really could only conjure lights and certain sounds. But trying to make an entire image was too difficult for her. She did manage to make human sounds, if I could tell her the words, she would be able to project with my human voice. That, and she would add her own effects.

What she was going to do was sneak into my old house at nighttime, and if we could find out where my mother was, we would sneak into that room as well. Once there, Gale would do her work. How people would react was up to them, but put it straight about what we were doing, we were going to haunt the rest of my family.

"This is brilliant, Gale!" I said, jumping up with a grin on my face.

She scowled, and her eye twitched. I quickly backstepped. "I mean, not that all your other ideas aren't as amazing. Especially that one on Droop."

And although Droop scowled at me at that comment, Gale's face lit up. "Thank you Magnus!"

"Yeah, thanks Magnus." Droop grumbled angrily.

"So when do you think we should do this?" Gale asked, head cocked to the side.

I honestly had to think about that. I wanted to do it the night before something important for my brothers, but I couldn't think of anything. I hadn't been in school for a long time, so I had no idea of tests. The only other thing would be sports. But again I ran into a dillemma. Football season was over. But Track was just beginning…

I looked up at Gale. "I'm going to have to sneak into the school for that, Gale. I know the event, but not the date…"

Sorry I took so long on this one… It was only a two day typer though! You know, instead of a three week deal of typing just a few sentences and then quitting.

So, who knows what Magnus was in his quick dream? If you answer correctly I'll update faster! And if you answer incorrectly I'll laugh in your face. But either way you should answer. Or just review on what you thought. Like you should.

Yeah. You should.

*stares in your eyes*

*pops your personal bubble*

*invades personal space*

*makes you feel incredibly uncomfortable*


	13. Going Heist Movie

Huh… This new phone is weird…. *presses buttons* Oh damn… I think that was the wrong thing to push… *phone beeps a long irritating noise* AAAAAAAGH! MY EARS!

Huh? Oh right! Time for another jaw dropping chapter of… *drum roll*

MINUS ONE! :D

Sorry about that whole beginning part… I just got a new phone you see, and I don't necesarrily like it to the best I should. Who else in the world has a Samsung Highlight? This thing is soooooo annoying! I miss my old LG Rumor… ;(

Ugh. But enough about my whole issues with my new cell phone. It's time to get onto the chapter you guys all wanted.

THIS IS A SERIOUS WARNING! MY LAST CHAPTER NEVER SENT OUT AN ALERT, SO MAKE SURE YOU READ CHAPTER 12 BEFORE THIS ONE!

Oh, and all of those with the decency to review my last chapter should know that yes, magnus's Dream pokemon was a Cubone. All who guessed that, were correct. Thank you for reviewing, and remembering to tell me that. (I'm looking at you, Pokerus…)

Make sure you guys go check out my new poll please! I haven't checked, but I don't know how many people actually have done any of my polls. (Like, a grand total of somewhere around ten? And that's for all of them!)

And yay, that was a successful half page distracting Author's note. Here's your brand new chapter!

**Chapter 13**

**Going Heist Movie**

**~OoO~**

"Remind me why we just watched this stupid Ocean's whatever for the twelfth time." Gale grumbled next to me on the couch. I had a notepad and a pen, which I breifly put down to explain my logic to her. "Look, Gale, I'm sorry you had to watch that actress play herself, don't get me started on that, but if I'm going to sneak into the High school and steal that Roster, I'm going to have to do it very discreetly. I'm almost positive Lily would notice her bag weighing several pounds heavier than normal."

Gale glared at me. "How does that relate to this mockery of American Films?"

"Ideas." I said calmly, picking up the pad and pen again. "Now, back to that part with the lazer field…"

"WHAT THE CRAP, MAGNUS!" Gale screamed. "HE FREAKING DANCES LIKE A FAIRY ACROSS THAT!"

"So? If you study what he does, we can easily go through one ourselves."

"Any normal high school won't have a freaking lazer field, Magnus." Gale snarled at me.

I blinked for a moment. "Right."

Her rage only grew from my ignorance. "Magnus, I swear to Mew, I will garuntee your death by my hands. It will be slow, painful, and you will SUFFER IN YOUR HELL OF A MIND, if you do not change this Mew damn MOVIE!"

"You're right. Italian Job is a much better heist movie anyway."

Gale went into insane rage, and dissappeared. I just shrugged, and clicked the disc skip button on the TV remote. I wasn't even four minutes into the beginning when I heard an enormous SLAM from the window behind me.

After I regained my correct place on the floor instead of the cieling, I looked at the window. A flattened Droop was splattered against it, eyes bigger than dinner plates, and tongue glued to the window as well. I gulped, and opened the window sheepishly. I only watched these movies in the daytime when everyone else was gone, so I wouldn't get kicked off or given strange looks for knowing how to operate a TV. But It also meant that Droop was active, and him splattering against a window wasn't good news. I pryed the flattened Pidgey from the window, and we fell back onto the grass. "Uaf! Geez Droop, lay off the cookies."

He sputtered, before getting to his feet. "Well, I'm sorry my wings weigh more than average."

"It's not your wings, fatty." I said grudgingly, poking his feathery belly.

Droop jumped back, and made a Hmmph noise. I then got back on my original thoughts. "Who exactly just flattened you against the window?"

"Your psychotic new girlfriend." Droop muttered angrily.

I furrowed my brow at him. "She isn't my girlfriend. It isn't even possible, the parts don't…. match…" I muttered, blushing at the memory of Biology. I jumped back to reality. "And did you SEE her do this?"

He ruffled his feathers. "I knew it was her."

"I'll take that as a 'no'." I said bitterly.

Droop looked at me. "Well who else could it be?"

"An angry predator." Said a voice behind me. Droop's eyes widened to their dinner plate size once more, and I sighed as I heard the pokemon come up behind me.

"Look-" I began, turning. But when I saw what stood before me, my ears fell, and I stopped dead in my sentence. I just now realized my small size compared to the enormous snake next to me. My eye twitched at the Arbok before me.

It's tongue danced out of its mouth once, before it lowered it's face to mine. "Care to explain who you are, little Minun?"

A noise escaped my throat, but it sounded like a balloon with a leak in it. The arbok rose up again. "Scared to death, obviously."

I nodded on a fixed axel, before turning. I began to walk away, but a tail came around in front of me. "Oh, no no no, you ain't goin' anywhere."

I turned my horrified face to Droop, and mouthed the words, "WHAT THE FUCK?" to him.

He let out a slight 'heh…' before looking at the Arbok. "I can go get the jewel I took from you… Just wait here…" He turned, but the Arbok's tail pushed us both up next to him.

"You really think I'm going to let you live after that little stunt?" He breathed, his tongue tickled the tip of Droop's beak. "Because I think you and your little friend here will be delivered to Giratina's doorstep here soon."

I opened my mouth. "WHY ME!"

The Arbok's attention turned to me. "Because you were in the wrong place, at the wrong time, little rabbit, and I just so happen to be hungrier than normal today."

"Eat him! He's more than normal weight!" I shouted, turning to Droop. His eyes widened.

"This coming from a pampered housepet! Please! I saw how you got covered in cake!"

The Arbok's attention turned back to me, tongue wildly going through the air. I glared at Droop. "That's because I have a culinarily challenged owner! The entire oven exploded! And as I recall, Gale was also covered in that!"

The Arbok squeezed us harder. "There's another?"

Droop siezed this opportunity. "Oh yes!" He choked out. "She's veeeeeery tasty. I can tell. Totally a dish to enjoy and savor."

The Arbok glared at him. "I'm still going to kill you too. You just ratted out your little girlfriend for nothing."

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Droop and I both screamed.

But this just resulted in us getting constricted even more. It felt like my eyes were about to pop out. But just as I thought my air supply would end forever again, the constriction stopped, and Droop and I were released.

The Arbok's eyes were glazed over, with rings of yellow, purple and blue. His voice came from his throat, but it was slurred with another's. Gale's.

"You two are the biggest fucking morons I KNOW! All the while you could've easily bit or charged This guy!" Gale yelled, flailing the Arbok's tail. "Jeez, its sad when two guys are saved by a girl." She muttered bitterly.

"It actually happens more than you'd think." I began, "Like in that one movie-" I was interrupted suddenly by being heavily constricted.

"THAT, is one of my most HATED words…" Gale hissed, squeezing my frame harder.

Her eyes blinked for an instant back to the Arbok's normal eyes, and she groaned. "Dammit, I forgot I have a limit on this…" She released me, and glared at me before her eyes rolled back. The Arbok fell back, unconscious, leaving an angry Gale where his head used to be. "Now unless you want this to get up and eat you for real, You will go get a human to clean this up."

I blinked for a moment, as I got my breath back. But when I looked around, Droop was nowhere to be seen. Gale stared at Snobby neighbor's fence, confusion on her face.

There was a loud crash, and I slapped my head with my paws. Droop fluttered back to us, and quickly exclaimed, "C'mon! Let's get this thing over the fence!"

I sighed, before helping Droop and Gale push the unconscious cobra to the fence, and then heave it over. We heard a big THUD from the other side, and then lots of exclamations from the workers. "What the hell is THAT?"

"Holy shit! That's an Arbok!"

"Call pokemon control! That thing's dangerous!"

And after about half an hour, the enormous purple snake was removed from the general area. I sighed as I watched from the roof as the large van out front pull away. "Droop, your stupid stolen things are going to get us killed someday…"

He laughed uneasily. "Yeah… But not before Gale does." He said, looking at the shuppet next to me. She glared at him, like she normally did. I sighed. "When will we ever get over this?"

"When your friend there is sitting on a big plate with an apple shoved in his beak." Gale muttered.

Droop ruffled his feathers, and looked at me. "Probably never, Magnus."

I sighed again, but he went on. "I was thinking… Who all is going to the school tonight? Is it just you?"

I shook my head. "No, I don't think there's a way I can get in by myself. I'm not good at thievery, no matter how many heist films I watch." I said glumly, carefully avoiding the word Gale didn't much like anymore.

Droop grinned. "Well, luckily, you have a master thief with you right now!"

"And a stealthy ghost." Gale added quietly. "I've been through that school several times before. It's where we met, after all."

I nodded at the memory, but Droop leaned over to look at her. "You also tried to eat his soul."

She glared at him. "I do that normally anyway. It's not my fault it happed to be Magnus."

Droop raised a brow at this. "Right. It's not your fault you eat souls."

I shook my head. We really were hopeless.

~OoO~

"You know, I've never been in a high school ever since I dropped out." Droop muttered to Magnus, as we were gazing up at the moonlit building. I just now realized how big it really was. When I said I had been through it before, I was actually lying. But I figured it would've been easy to get in and out.

I didn't know that the place would be so damn big.

"c'mon then." I muttered, looking at the Minun and Pidgey. "I can get us through those doors easy enough."

Magnus crawled up to the big glass doors of the building, and pushed his face into it. His breath fogged up the glass around him, but he paid no attention to it. Once he was done doing whatever he was doing, (honestly, that boy confuses me sometimes) he turned to me. "Coast is clear. Help me through."

I floated up to him, and peered through the glass as well. All I saw was a little entryway, and another set of locked doors behind that. I raised a brow at this. "Why would they lock two sets of doors? That seems stupid."

Magnus looked up at me. "Do you know how many bricks have been thrown through these windows? Obviously not. Pexiglass is too expensive for this town to afford." He said bluntly, knocking on the glass.

I blinked, before giving the school a curious look. "I might have some things to learn from this building if people hate it this much. It must have torture secrets hidden away somewhere inside!" I yelled, as the beautiful idea formulated in my head.

Droop gave me a weird look that I scowled at him for. Magnus shrugged. "Meh, they probably do. Some of these people were better at mental torture than you, Gale."

I was offended at that comment. "And what is THAT supposed to mean, Magnus?"

He gazed up at me. "They'd give you a run for your money. Some of them make you look as menacing as a Jigglypuff."

My eyes widened. "NO! Not possible!" I pushed my face against the glass. "Nobody can match my cunning!"

Droop looked at Magnus, before turning to me. "He's actually right. I'd be more afraid of some of these teachers rather than you, Gale."

I swirled to look at him, making sure my most menacing face was on. "You want to run that by me again, little bird…?"

His eyes didn't falter. "That face is the one my professor gave to me. But it was his normal one. I'm sure he had many worse ones."

My face fell, and I turned to the school again. "Now I really need to get in there."

"Well if you didn't dawdle us so much, we'd already have the thing we need. Let's go, Gale." Magnus said to me.

I shot a glare at him, but nevertheless pulled him and Droop through the doors and into the front entrance of the building. When we touched down, Magnus looked around. "Alright… It's been a while, but I think I still know my way around." He got down on all fours, and began to walk through the commons. I followed him, taking in glances of the surroundings. We were on the first floor, and above and around us were hallways leading farther into the school. The second floor above us had a big hole in it, and looked down upon us. Along the railings of it were banners in the school colors, pink and white. This school was already starting to piss me off. Laid on the walls were posters of apparently famous quotes of inspiration, but again, it only made me angry. I could see why those children threw bricks at this place.

Magnus shuffled along slowly, and he stifled a yawn. Apparently he wasn't much of a fan of this place as I was. Droop walked beside me, and uttered, "This place is weird. I didn't even know Cherrygrove had this many students to fill this kind of Alumni."

"We don't." Magnus said bluntly back to us. "Most of these classrooms are for 'students to come', or some other kind of Tauroshit like that."

He shrugged. "I guess that's a way to cut down on expansions later."

"It's annoying, actually. We have hallways that go down to the nineties and early hundreds, and random ones are actually used. The classes are too damn small, and even then the teachers don't give a shit about any of the students. Practically all the students eat lunch together, but even then some of the tables aren't filled. In the Auditorium, people can almost have sex with one another and it would be so big nobody would notice. And that's when it's filled with all the classes!" Magnus ranted.

Droop ruffled his feathers. "I wish I had that when I was in highschool."

Magnus glared back at him. "That's disgusting."

Droop simply shrugged. "It's true."

This time I interjected. "I don't see why they would do that in a public place anyway. Isn't there something known as privacy anymore?"

Magnus just glared ahead. "I don't know. I only know that stupid fact because I witnessed it happen."

Droop and I glanced at one another. "That's… Pretty embarrassing."

He shook his head. "Tyler didn't seem to notice."

Droop shuddered. "Now that's just awful."

"Can we please just change the subject? I don't like being in the dark about this." I said angrily.

We continued on in silence. When we got to the end of the extremely long hallway, Magnus stopped. "Damn… They must've moved it…" He stood up, and scanned the bullitin board thoroughly. "Dammit! I don't know where else it could be!"

"It may be in one of the classrooms." Droop pointed out. "Do you know who the track coach was?"

"I didn't pay any attention to that sort of thing." Magnus said angrily, looking over the board once again.

"Well, do you think they'd put it in an art room or something?" Droop thoughtfully said.

"My art teacher hated my art. He said it was too dark, and he didn't 'understand it'." Magnus growled, remembering the bitter memory.

Droop thought about it for a minute. "How about the offices? I'm sure they'd have to be posted there."

Magnus shook his head. "Why would they have it there if it's not up here? This is the freaking sports hallway for Mew's sake!"

I looked down at the Minun. "Would it be inside that room?" I asked, gazing at Several large wooden doors. Magnus looked at them, and thought about it. "I don't remember a bulletin board inside the gym, but it wouldn't hurt to look, I guess. Can you get us through the doors?"

I oblidged, but when we got through, My jaw dropped to the floor. There was a bulletin board on the other side of the enormous gymnasium, sure, but there was just one little obstacle in our way.

A lazer field.

"WHY IN HELL IS THIS HERE?" I asked loudly, staring dumbstruck at the moving red lines along the floor.

Magnus gazed up at me. "And you thought there wouldn't be one."

"THIS IS A FREAKING HIGHSCHOOL!" I shouted. "WHY WOULD THERE BE ONE!"

Magnus ignored me. "Good thing I paid special attention to that lazer field scene. This ought to be easy." He strolled up to the edge of the daintily moving lines, looked them over, and took a deep breath.

He screamed and ran straight through it, somehow dodging every single red line.

Droop's jaw hit the floor, right after mine did. Magnus panted from the other side, and then looked at the bulletin board. He found whatever he was looking for, and snatched it off. He folded it neatly, and put it in his mouth as he waltzed up to the field again. But just as he was about to repeat his stupid action, he stopped, and looked over at the wall. His brow furrowed, and he went over to it. He hopped up sever steps of the bleachers, before jumping at a wall panel.

He gazed over it, before clicking several buttons. At once, the lights went out, and we were in semidarkness. Magnus came back to us slowly, annoyed expression on his face. "They were testing prom lights."

I almost blew up at him. "So those weren't lazers?"

He shook his head. "No. But you were impressed by my skills, weren't you?"

I sighed, and snatched the paper from his hand. I carefully opened it, and looked at the scribbles on it. "How exactly is this page of unknown symbols going to help us?" I asked, turning it in circles in an attempt to get a meaning out of it.

Magnus snatched the paper from me, and straightened it out. He gave me one last slight glare before looking at it. Droop looked at it from over his shoulder. "It's a list of important sports times. There, that's the next Track meet." He said, pointing to something on the page. I glared at them. "How can you understand that sheet of nonsense? Is it because I'm a ghost? Is it because I'm a GIRL?" I asked loudly, zooming up to his face.

Droop's eyes were practically glued to mine, but he blinked, and took a step back. "We used to be human, Gale. We can still read. I thought I told you that."

I looked away from him angrily. I was ignoring him when he was talking about that, I just didn't want to admit it.

Magnus folded the paper again. "We have a date. Now, lets get home before anything bad happens."

"Heh, curse us why don't you?" Droop said with a laugh. "That's the biggest cue for trouble I've ever-"

There was a sudden loud noise, and I whirled around. The doors behind us had slammed shut, and the emergency lights had gone out as well. I went over to the doors, and tried to pass through them, but I couldn't.

We had been sealed in.

~OoO~

Dun Dun DUUUUUUUN! Cliffhanger!

It took me a while to write this, didn't it? Heh heh, sorry all.

But remember! Review review review! Pleeeease? I like the attention. :)

Also make sure to check out that poll, alright? Reader feedback is better than all else.

I'm going back to Texas soon, so my next chapter isn't going to show up anytime soon, unfortunately. My dad is moving again cuz me and my sis are moving to our Mom's house, and he can't afford the house he's in right now. :(

Sooooo, yeah. Review and do the poll please! :D

See you all later!


	14. Discussions

Hey all! :D

After that long-assed break in Texas, (ew) I'm finally back in Utah! And because all of you (of the three or four?) are such good readers, (who LOVE to recommend this story to friends, hint hint) I decided to put in a new chapter!

But unfortunately it won't cover the cliffhanger I left you on. :)

MUAHAHA! :D

And I'm sorry to make it short today, but I'm not in the mood for a normal, 3000 word minimum chapter. Sorry! :(

So, keep your hold on that cliff for a while, and enjoy this brand new edition of,

MINUS ONE! :D

~OoO~

**Chapter 14**

**Discussions**

"Honey, remember that rather irritating commercial we saw yesterday?" Mrs. Brown asked her husband. They were laying in bed, quietly reading books way above any standard person's literary level.

"There seem to be lots of those these days, darling." Mr. Brown muttered back. "Was it the one about that laundry detergent or the one for that supposedly magic towel?"

Mrs. Brown gave her husband a stern look over her glasses. "I was talking about the one for the tryouts at Violet City."

Mr. Brown looked up from his book. "Oh yeah…" He returned his attention back to the literature in his lap. "What of it?"

"I thought we should sign Lily up for it." Mrs. Brown said thoughtfully.

At this, Mr. Brown had to close his book. "She's sixteen, Theresa. We made sure she didn't do that so she could actually get an education and a real job. Most colleges aren't impressed anymore from a half-completed trainer's card. It's too expensive, even for us, and honestly, our daughter isn't the most responsible young lady around. She's too naïve. We'd sooner be saying hello to a pregnant, rape victim."

Mrs. Brown frowned upon her husband's thinking. "You know that accident was a long time ago. Besides, law enforcement has significantly gone up since then!"

"I forbid Lily to go, Theresa." Mr. Brown said seriously to his wife.

Mrs. Brown sat there for a minute. "What about Vanessa? I know she doesn't trust anybody whatsoever. She still thinks her kindergarten teacher poisons her grape juice."

"Why did they even GIVE Vanessa grape juice? It's pure sugar." Mr. Brown muttered, but his wife continued.

"Speaking of school, that girl isn't the brightest crayon in the box, honey. It would be beneficial for her to take the challenge."

Mr. Brown's serious look didn't falter, but eventually he let out a sigh. "Where exactly is she going to get a Pokémon for the tryout? They specify you need one, and I'm sure as hell not going to buy her a Pokémon for something I don't fully approve of. And neither are you."

Mrs. Brown thought for a minute. "How about Magnus?"

Mr. Brown's eyes about bulged out of his head. "Our MINUN? Theresa, have you WATCHED that little thing? He falls asleep in his food, watches TV like a bored child, refuses to let us walk him, and must I remind you that we bought that egg from a VERY expensive breeder? We'd be setting up our daughter with an indoor PET, not a pre-trained fighter!"

His wife stared at him for a long time. "What else then, Robert? I don't see a promising future for that girl in any other form. This is her opportunity to succeed, and it's being served in a silver platter. We'd be throwing it away like a spoiled vegetable."

Mr. Brown furrowed his brow and rubbed his temples. He finally sighed and looked at her. "I'll sleep on it."

And with that, he laid down, and turned out the lights.

~OoO~

Vanessa was doing her best to pay attention, but her mind kept drifting, as it always did. Instead of listening to her teacher talk about numbers and addition, (something Vanessa learned very quickly and understood) she was staring outside at a small Rattatata, who was munching some of the grass. He looked up at his trainer, who was busy on his cell phone, and then went back to eating the greening lawn in front of him. Vanessa watched him with curiosity and almost expectance.

Her attention was interrupted by her teacher, a plump, kind old lady with a tight gray bun. "Vanessa, do you need to go run around outside some more?"

Seeing an opportunity to scram, Vanessa quickly nodded and fled the colorful classroom. Upon entering the fresh air, she turned and darted to the small purple rat and his trainer. The trainer, a kid who looked like he was in the fifth grade, barely looked up from his phone. "Whaddaya want, kid? I'm here to drop off my brother's stupid little Pokémon."

Vanessa eyeballed the Pokéballs on the older child's belt, and gave him a cunning look. "I'm guessing that you are a trainer, no?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Yeah. A pretty good one, too."

"Your ego is incredible, but I know I'd wipe the floor with you and your Pokémon any day." Vanessa said sweetly.

The kid gave her a stunned look, (obviously shocked from her vocabulary and wit) but regained his stance. "Right. What do you of all people know about Pokémon fighting?"

"Everything." Vanessa said deviously, the corners of her mouth sliding up into a smirk.

The kid gave her a doubtful look. "Right."

"Tell me a time and place and I'll send your ass crying to your mommy." Vanessa warned, giving him a daring look.

The kid gave her a smug look back. "Fine. School playground, six thirty. Bring tissues, cuz you're gonna need them after I make you cry."

He marched off, leaving Vanessa alone on the sidewalk. The Rattatata boredly continued chewing the grass at his feet. Vanessa stared after him for only a small moment before she heard someone calling her name. Sighing, she returned to the classroom, thinking of strategy.

*OoO*

When Vanessa arrived at home, she quickly dropped everything and hurried to the backyard. Sure enough, she caught a glimpse of the Pidgey, the Shuppet, and Magnus sitting together. But upon her sight, the wild Pokémon fled, leaving Magnus alone.

He looked up at her in confusion as she walked over. When Vanessa got to him, she picked him up. "Can you help me with something? I need to kick someone's ass."

His ears fell in disbelief when he heard him say that, but the Shuppet was immediately back, eager smile plastered to her face. Vanessa recognized the Shuppet from before, but shrugged it off. "Can you get your other friend too? I'm in need of his assistance as well."

She set the Minun down and he shuffled over to the bush, mumbling something unknown to Vanessa into it. A short time later the Pidgey emerged, giving the five-year old a doubtful look.

Happy nevertheless, Vanessa gestured for the Pokémon to follow her, and went through the back gate to avoid suspicions from her mother. The woman was rather observant, but somehow completely oblivious to her own backyard. Just another thing Vanessa's overactive mind couldn't help overlooking.

When the several Pokémon arrived at the near empty playground, Vanessa checked the school tower's clock. Five o'clock. She still had time to prepare herself.

"Alright. First off, I know that Magnus, you can spell things out, am I correct?" The Minun nodded with curiosity and she continued. "Then spell their names." She told him, pointing between the Pidgey and Shuppet.

Magnus did as he was told, and began to spell out Gale's name on the concrete with the stick of chalk Vanessa handed him. (Hey, those pockets her mother sewed on her dress came in handy) Upon completion, Magnus handed the chalk back to the little girl and backed up for her to read.

She studied the names, and looked between the two Pokémon, before smiling. "Okay! Simple enough! Do you happen to know your levels?"

They shook their heads, and she thought for a moment. "But you're all relatively close to one another."

The trio looked at each other uncertainly before shrugging and nodding. Vanessa contemplated this. "Okay, so generally you're all around level ten to fifteen… Move wise, what do you know?"

Magnus took the chalk from her again and wrote down what he knew they each had. Her face lit up when she saw them, and looked at Droop with a slight smile. "I knew those wings were all rocky for a reason!"

This little remark made the tiny bird a bit flustered, his beak tinting a little red.

Gale's eyes squinted, and her frown turned into a scowl. Vanessa turned, and saw the fifth-grader approaching her, Pokémon in tow. "You're a bit early, little girl. Wanna cry sooner? I honestly thought you would've fled by now."

Magnus and Droop scowled, and muttered rage to one another. Vanessa stood completely still and calm however, unaffected by his trash-talk. "You'd want that, wouldn't you? That way you wouldn't have everyone see how pathetic you really are."

A small crowd had gathered around them curiously, but the sight of two kids trash-talking and Pokémon told them a fight was about to go down. The fifth-grader scowled, and muttered, "You first, girlie."

Vanessa looked at Droop. "Go get 'em."

Droop fluttered in front of her, and the asphalt seemed to glow around them, setting up an invisible arena. The older kid smirked, and tossed one of his three Pokéballs. A rattatata burst from it, landing in the arena across from Droop. The bird grinned smugly, and flexed his plated wings. Vanessa twinned his grin perfectly, and uttered, "You first."

The boy took no time with it. He shouted out over-zealously, "Rattatata! Tackle!"

The rat charged forward, and slammed into Droop, who had flexed his wings over his body to shield himself. He skidded back at the power behind it, sparking up the asphalt with his sharp claws, but the rat was the one who walked away with damage, cringing at its side painfully. Vanessa giggled. "You may want to rethink your moves before you charge headfirst at one with Rough Skin."

The kid didn't get her message, thinking she was just boasting. "Do it again!"

"Droop, dodge and hit him with a wing attack!" Vanessa called, swinging her arm to initiate the action. Droop did a flip over the charging purple rat, and then spun in like a twister with his wings spread, smashing his brick-like feathers into the rat's fur, and sending it tumbling back across the asphalt to it's trainer. Blood leaked from it's heavy wound, but the kid just snarled. "Quick Attack!"

Droop was suddenly pounded in the chest by the bird, but he recovered whilst flying back, and landed gracefully on his feet. "Use another wing attack! Finish him off!" Vanessa called out. Droop grinned maniacally and spun a tornado once again, slamming and bouncing off the rattatata like a top.

The rattatata promptly fell over, exhausted. He was withdrawn without much hesitation, and was replaced on the field by a geodude. Vanessa quickly called back Droop, who fluttered out of the field to be replaced by Gale. She grinned evilly, jagged teeth stretching from one side of her face to the other. The puppet's head turned around several times, and her eye twitched with neurotic hysteria.

"Alright Gale! Curse him!" Vanessa called out, her focus showing in her eyes.

Gale gave Vanessa a slight curious look, before summoning a long needle in midair. She stared at it for a long time, and it jabbed into her face, right between her eyes. Gale's eyes spun like mad, and the needle drove itself into her head, rattling like a possessed object.

The Geodude cringed, and let out a small cry of pain as a black aura faded away from him. The fifth-grader didn't seem to notice, and shouted, "Rock throw!"

The geodude shook his head violently to rid his head of pain, and chucked a random rock at Gale, who dodged it with ease, smile now intact again, even though the needle began to bleed. "Will-o-Wisp!" Vanessa called, pointing at the Geodude.

Gale swirled around the geodude, toying with him, before lightly blowing specks of flame all over his small rocky body. The geodude cried out again, as they seared into his rocky flesh, and burned him. In anger, it threw another rock at Gale, smacking into her face and sending the puppet tumbling through the air. Vanessa scowled. "Use spite!"

The puppet didn't need to be told twice, her eyes flashed in anger, and the geodude blinked. But he was soon overcome, and he wailed at the mixed, piercing pain of his burn and curse. "Quickly! Use another ominous wind!"

The little rock with arms was blown away. (no pun intended)

The fifth-grader sneered. "Don't think it's over just yet! Go! Croconaw!"

Sure enough, the large, blue crocodile appeared in the stage and roared at Gale, who flashed her eyes at him. "Gale, come back. Magnus, you go in there and kick his ass."

They swapped places, the little yellow rabbit staring at the enormous beast in front of him with fear. "Magnus! Dodge his attacks and use Rain Dance!"

He gave the five year-old an insane look, but screeched and leapt out of the way as the crocodile tried to snap him in half. He scurried around the field whilst avoiding vicious snaps of the much higher leveled Pokémon, waving his arms, head, and feet around rhythmically. And like Vanessa wanted, the previous sun disappeared behind sudden, black clouds, bringing forth intense rain. The kid grinned evilly. "Do you know what you just did? Croconaw! Water gun! Wipe that little snot out!"

"Magnus!" Vanessa cried, watching in horror as the alligator prepared to blast him off the earth, "THUNDER!"

In slow motion, the tiny rabbit leapt in the air, just as the alligator released the jet of water. Magnus did several flips, before bringing his tiny fist straight down, and sending a white-hot blast of electricity from the sky, blinding the world around them with a deafening crash as the barrier of the field was destroyed.

The battle was over.

~OoO~

Just a note, this isn't a main part of the story-line, its just a filler so people don't come up to me and say, "ZOMG, WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?"

That's just annoying.

The story is going in fast motion people, days pass between the chapters, this could have been any one of them. It's a foreboder, and it shows things you should know in the end.

Oh, and btw, I'm still working on my next chapter, but I doubt it'll be up anytime soon. I hoped you liked this little filler and battle! :D


	15. Escape

Wow…

Long time no see, eh? Yeah, this was supposed to be a good ol' chapter that came out right after my last one, but as you can see… heheh, that wasn't exactly the case. For those who didn't know, this entire story was trapped in a cpu just beyond my reach, and although it would've taken about thirty seconds for me to get it, I was just too lazy to. Yeah… Making myself look and sound like a moron. TT_TT

So yeah…. I give my most sincere apologies for the wait. D:

And after I re-read my story, I totally realized I changed Lily's last name. O_O

This is what I get for never updating. TT_TT

~OoO~

**Chapter 15**

**Escape**

"What do you mean you can't get us out of here?" Droop half-screamed at Gale. "You're a fucking ghost!"

It looked like the poor Shuppet was on the brink of tears. "I don't know! I just can't!"

"Well try harder!" Droop yelled at her.

"Guys! Shut the fuck up!" I yelled. "For the love of mew, we won't get outta here if we're trapped, but obviously whatever trapped us is still here! Otherwise that door would've slammed when we first got in!"

Gale and Droop looked at me, but Droop furrowed his brow at me. "Obviously you don't realize, PEOPLE KILL US WHEN WE'RE IN HERE!" He yelled hysterically.

Gale looked around nervously. Never would I have thought to see her scared. I heard doors from the other end of the gym slam open, and I turned to see who or what it was. We waited in the dead silence, but nothing came out of the doors. "Maybe it's a way out." I said meekly. No reply came, and I turned my head to look at Droop and Gale.

Both were gone.

I turned back around, sweat coming down my face. "Well this just took a turn for the worst…" I breathed, my heart beginning to slam against my ribs in fear. Very slowly, I took a step toward the other end of the gym, but I suddenly got vertigo and saw the longest path ahead of me. "Not good!" I whimpered, taking another step.

A voice echoed throughout the gym. "Better hurry if you want to see your friends alive, little bunny!"

The voice sounded like a maniac, but I swallowed and hurried across the gym to the locker room doors, which had been slammed so hard open they had been torn off their hinges. Knowing full well I may need my hands down the road, I quickly folded up the schedule and took off my earring. I stabbed it trough the paper, and re-administered it to my ear, making sure it wouldn't fall off. "I'm coming, guys!" I shouted, tip-toeing through the destroyed doors. But as soon as I entered, they slammed back on, and sealed shut.

Trying to be brave, I shouted again. "Is there a reason I'm not allowed to go back!"

A lump of incredibly painful something slammed into my chest, slamming me against the doors and then straight to the ground. "Ow…" I muttered, feeling where the Shadow Ball had been hurled into me. My fur was stained black where it hit, and I let out a pained breath before standing.

"Time's a ticking, little bunny…" The maniacal voice echoed. "If you can endure this hallway you're a step closer to your little robbing friends…"

I cursed, and looked around the large locker room. It was hugely proportioned for too many people, but even then the coaches made us dress out together. Since I didn't like my old body, the mangled, short, too thin an object, I refused to change out. Never once did I, so that was probably why I failed gym. Not that it really mattered, my life didn't have a direction anyway. Why waste my dignity when I was already never going to graduate or have a purpose?

Gingerly, I took a step forward, keeping tabs on everything around me. It was dark in here, and although I had good vision, seeing in this thick blackness was nearly impossible. Instantly, a locker door burst open, and hurled another lump of pain at me. It smacked into my head, and I flew into the other side of the locker hallway. What I smashed into opened, and some sort of thick goo poured on top of me. I screeched as the acid attack burned my fur, and I skittered out of it, heading for cover underneath a bench.

There was a loud cackle, and I shut my eyes in slight embarrassment. Of course this was going to happen when I went back to high school… More humiliation. This was a terrible idea. I looked around the room meekly. The long hallway of metal lockers went on for what seemed like forever…

I thought that over again. METAL lockers.

I cursed under my breath for not seeing it earlier. This was simple! I could just override the security precautions here! Smile in place, I took aim at one of the few lockers. "Time to reveal your stuff…"

As soon at the thunderbolt hit the locker, the hallway lit up gorgeously. It was like watching dominoes fall down after elaborately setting them up. The entire hallway exploded practically, sending lumps of shadow, poison, and other stuff I didn't want to know of flying across at an unknown target, only triggering the next in the row of pain.

I smiled smugly as I strolled down the destroyed path. "That was significantly easier than I thought it would be."

Of course, I said that idiotic thing too soon. For right as I left the locker room, the doors and windows shattered, but instead of falling to the floor, the splintered glass rearranged themselves into some sort of crude, barbed pane. Trying to get through that would be instant and multiple stabbings all over everything. In other words, I was not getting out that way.

I thought of the layout of my school at that point. Currently, I was placed at the farthest point in the school, in building number 4. It was the smallest building reserved for physical classes. Gym, yoga, etc. Next to it, was building number 3, (duh) and it held the more traditional classes. Well, if we had enough teachers or budget to actually fill all the rooms. Again, random rooms were given, so I could've been hunting for days before searching them all.

After that, was building number 2. This was the building with the main entrance, and it had the least amount of classrooms in it. It consisted of the Cafeteria, the commons, all the banners of "school spirit", the principal's office, and certain theatre and choir classes.

And of course, there was building number 1.

This was the oldest part of the school. This held all the extra classes, the multiple computer labs, the auditorium, all the art rooms, several more choir and theatre rooms, the engineering classrooms, the astronomy tower, (yes, really. Those kids all wore sunglasses from staring at the sun all day) and of course, the fine-tuned, military grade Pokémon arenas. It was the only place in the school where Pokémon were allowed. I never really spent any time in there, but I knew that it still had the generic room, the place where they kept generic local Pokémon to fight with or against.

Somehow I knew that was where Droop was at least. As for Gale… I didn't know where they could've put her. But that meant I was the farthest I could be from my goal, and I was still sitting just outside the locker rooms.

I got up, and stared down the hallway cautiously. Nothing… as of yet. I took a few strides down it, when the walls flashed. I blinked from the sudden light, but realized I wasn't alone in the hallway anymore. What looked like a flaming black and purple orb hovered in my way. I got into a fighting stance. The little ghost wasn't getting in my way, not now.

Its eyes opened, and the devilish smile appeared with it. "Why hello there, familiar one." It said with a high pitched giggle.

I sneered. "I don't have time for idle chatter. Let's get this over with."

It frowned. "Aww… Don't you wanna play? I was looking forward to that!"

My expression remained as hard as concrete, and the Ghastly finally got the hint. "Fine. Be mean. I guess we won't play, familiar one."

It disappeared into the walls, and I blinked. Was that it? A slam to the back of my head reminded me that my task was never that simple. I quickly got up, and leapt to the side as the Ghastly ripped through the air, almost hitting me again. I fired several thunderbolts at it, but they just blasted the walls as the little speed demon launched away.

I cursed as it disappeared into the walls again, and I quickly back stepped down the hall as random cinderblocks burst from the walls and shattered against the other.

Air whipped my face more than once from close encounters, and the debris showered the hallway with white dust. I angrily fired at the walls, and unexpectedly heard a screech come from one. The bricks immediately stopped firing out, but the holes they left started to leak. I cringed as I recognized the familiar goopy acid, and I gagged at the revolting stench.

As the carpet began to dissolve, I heard something. It was impossible to miss the maniacal giggling going on behind one of the leaking acid pocket. I smiled myself, and fired a thunder into the hole.

And just like that, the hallway was back to normal. No dust, no acid, no Ghastly.

Just me, and an empty hall.

The lights went on, and the intercom binged. "Congratulations, little bunny. You've emptied the Fourth building. Now let's see you empty the third…"

It slammed off, and I stared up at the speaker cautiously. Emptied? What the hell did that mean? All I did was defeat a ghastly…

Walking into the third building, I heard the windows shatter, and like before, they rearranged themselves to make an effective, jagged barrier. Like I was leaving here without Droop and Gale anyway. It was rather offensive to think they thought so low of me.

"Well it's not that hard." The little voice at the back of my head whispered. "You did hang yourself after all. Even YOU thought you were trash. You can't blame others for thinking the same."

"Thanks, conscience. That's a real boost."

"You're welcome." The sarcastic voice mumbled, before leaving me back where I was.

I looked around. There were two options at this point. Go up the stairs where I was and scan through the Japanese, History, and Math classrooms, or stay downstairs and go through each individual science lab and cleaning closets. Seeing as one had a lot less glass, I decided to go with the former.

It was only when I got up the stairs did I realize how little time I had to scan through all these rooms. There wasn't any possible way to check them all within just a few hours!

But like any classic cliché, I got a sign right as I passed a door. And by sign, I mean the door burst off its hinges and scared the living hell out of me. There was loud shouting and some very colorful words being said, followed by a loud wailing noise, and a Haunter crawling out of the room. It was panting desperately, and I watched as it was grabbed by an unknown force and dragged screaming back into the room.

I blinked as it went silent. But it went to relief when I heard someone talking. "I'll let you know one thing. Revenge, is one of my FAVORITE things…"

Gale was floating over a fainted Haunter, looking fiercely scratched and bruised, but also incredibly pissed off. It was rather relieving to see her like that. As I came in the room however, her eyes went to me, and immediately her expression went angrier.

She was in my face within seconds. "When we get out of this, I will turn you into an easter stuffed bunny! This is ALL YOUR FAULT…." She growled, glaring intently in my eyes.

I blinked once, and then calmly said, "But gale, if you do that, we won't get to have revenge…"

That seemed to smack her straight out of it. "But I LOOOOOOOOOOVE revenge!" She whined, giving me a pleading look.

"I know. Which is why you can't turn me into a roast slab of meat on Easter."

She blinked, and glared at me. "Then I'll make sure Droop is a delicious looking chunk of KFC!"

"We have to find him first before you do that, Gale."

The lights flickered on, and the same voice came through the intercom. "Well that wasn't fair. Using your ghosty friend to complete this building just isn't nice! Well… Building number 2 WON'T be as easy!"

The intercom slammed, and I looked at Gale. "Something tells me that Haunter wasn't the only one you're facing today, Gale."

"Tonight. Get it right. I hate the day." Gale growled, floating out of the room. "Now lets get the hell out of here… I'm getting sick of looking at this much pink!"

"ugh… Imagine going here every day…" I grimly muttered, following her out. "We go this way, Gale." I said aloud, pointing toward the center of the school.

"I knew that." She spat, quickly hovering the way I pointed.

I just rolled my eyes, and followed her to the second building. Sure enough, as soon as we passed through a pair of fire doors, the lights were cut, and they slammed shut. Gale glared at the doors, and looked at me. "If a fire breaks out, why do they lock the children inside?"

"Usually the children can push open the doors. Fire can't, and therefore, it's more difficult for the fire to get through those doors and continue to burn up the place. Although I can honestly say certain children deserved to be locked in."

A crooked grin curved it's way up Gale's face. Who knew what sadistic thoughts were going through it at that point. I didn't feel like interupting her, it was better she thought it out instead of actually inflicting it upon them.

…Or me, for that matter.

We continued on, until we were on the overhanging part of the second building. I leaned through the guardrails to look over the commons, when I heard something odd.

"Gale… Did you hear that?"

"No, was I supposed-"

There was a loud cracking noise, and I spun around. There was an enormous crack in the floor around where we were standing. I didn't get a chance to react before another crack sounded, and the bit of balcony we were on collapsed. I leapt and caught Gale, and landed on the nearby chunk of balcony as the section we were on crashed to the ground, and exploded into a huge cloud of dust and debris.

Gale looked at the cracks, and pulled me to my feet. "Magnus, I can't get any higher than where I am now…"

"What?" I asked, giving her a confused look.

"If the floor falls, I fall too! It shouldn't be like that!"

There was another loud cracking noise, and I realized the staircase in the middle of the hall was splitting from the balcony. "They're collapsing the entire thing!"

The staircase slammed against the ground, and I looked around wildly. We needed to get down to the ground floor safely, and riding a giant chunk of concrete wasn't the safe way. We needed stairs, and the only place that was was behind us, the one that was collapsed…

And the one in the first building.

"C'mon! We hafta get to the-" I began to shout, but the bit of balcony in front of me cracked up, and within instants, it shattered into dust and chunks of gravel. "Shit!" I yelled, looking around wildly. "We have to go the long way! C'mon, Gale!"

I snagged her, and sped the other direction. I took a giant leap, and we soared over the first missing gap of balcony. We tumbled to the other side, and I continued to run around the hallway, skidding the corners as the floor cracked and crashed to the ground beneath us.

But just as we were mere feet away from the first building hallway, the fire doors slammed shut. I yelped, and Gale caught the air, swinging me so I didn't flatten my face against the metal. I gulped as the ground cracked, and Gale screeched as Gravity took the solid piece of concrete. The piece of balcony swung down, and smashed against the floor, sending us flying across the tiled commons in the enormous cloud of dust.

I coughed several times. That hurt a LOT more than it should have…

There were more coughs around me, and I looked around. "Gale? Where are you? I can't see in all this crap!"

A familiar pungeant, rush of air surrounded the world around me, and the dust settled. Gale hovered near me, covered in grey-white dust. "I can see why you hated this place. I hate it too."

"The balcony wasn't supposed to do that, Gale… We aren't alone…"

A burst of purple gas swirled around us, and I spun in confusion, but the swirls contaminated into one specific spot, before dissipating. Although what stood in its place I couldn't much care for.

"It seems you found one of your friends, little bunny…" The gengar murmured, grinning devilishly. "Although I didn't like how you couldn't take my last accomplice by yourself."

"I just want OUT, thank you. And hopefully I never have to come back to this hellish spot on earth!" Gale spat, glaring at the enormous ghost.

"Are you the one doing all this to us?" I asked cautiously.

"Me? Why would _I _do this to you? Haven't you suffered enough?" It asked, putting on fake sympathy. "No, our master is just ahead. But I, however, will do what my comrades couldn't, and defeat you. I'm afraid you're not leaving here tonight, little bunny."

"Like hell I'm not!" I shouted, flinging a ball of electricity at the gengar.

The ghost leapt aside, and kept its devilish grin as the ball exploded in the rubble, releasing a puff of dust in the air. "Well that's just unsportsman-like. I'm offended."

Gale growled, and shouted. "Just fight already!"

"With pleasure…" It whispered, before jumping into the air. I leapt out of the way, and tumbled across the floor as a spurt of putrid purple energy blasted where I just was. "Gale! Be weary! I don't want to have to drag a sheet home again!"

Gale didn't answer, she was busy avoiding random spurts of the shadow ball. Seeing an opportunity, I charged at the gengar, fist crackling with electricity. Just as I swung, the gengar spun around, dodging my attack and slamming it's own arm into the back of my head. I was flung across the tiled floor, but managed to land clumsily on my feet. My head was throbbing and my ears were ringing, but that wasn't going to stop me.

Gale was whirling around the commons, and I caught her as she passed, giving me an ample opportunity to be swinging around in a huge circle, just like a record player. She managed to maintain the speed she was going at, and therefore we were both avoiding the enormous lumps of shadow being hurled at us. The gengar was just playing with us now.

"How are we supposed to stop him?" Gale growled, glancing down at me.

"I don't know!" I hissed back. My feet scraped the floor at that moment, and I looked down. Carpeting! That gave me an idea. "Gale! Go faster!"

She didn't have any choice, as I slammed both my feet into the floor. Gale sped up, making my feet practically set fire against the carpet. Sparks began to fly, and I grinned. Static at its greatest.

I let go of Gale, and leapt through the air, connecting a long bolt of white hot lightning behind me to the floor, and slammed into the Gengar, releasing all the pent up energy into its body. The gengar screeched, before flinging me at Gale. This time, he hit his target, and sent Gale and me tumbling across the floor.

We weren't playing now.

The floor shook, turning black as the Night Tide attack grew. I yelped, and skittered across the floor quickly, as it burst upward in jets of darkness. Most of them missed me by inches, but the last one burst in front of me, sending me flying upward in an arc. I screamed throughout my little flight, and I hit the ground with a pained "oof!"

Gale was practically snarling. There was a coil of bluish fire hoviering around her, and I saw in an instant as she whipped it like a rope. But just as it would snap, she let go, sending the will-o-wisp hurtling at the Gengar, who didn't get out of the way in time. The coil wrapped around him, and embedded itself into the gengar's body, making him howl with pain as the burn settled.

Gale grinned maniacally, but it was short lived, for she was slammed by a well charged shadow ball. She tumbled across the floor, and weakly remained there, although she didn't pop into just a sheet, which meant she was still conscious. I glared at the gengar, and charged at him. This time, I didn't miss. But as my fist collided with his face, the world around me flashed.

We were standing in the center of the commons. The floor was swept clean, the balcony was where it should've been, and the lights were on. I saw the doors to the first building swing open, but no voice came through the intercom.

"I think we're just about out of here…" I muttered, looking up at Gale. She remained silent, but followed close behind me as we walked through the doors to the dark first building.

Like the buildings before us, the doors slammed shut, and the windows turned into their secure shattered state. Gale and I both glared intently at them, before going ahead. The first building didn't have an upper floor, but it was certainly spread out. I walked through it calmly, Gale looking around. "There are certainly a lot of… trees… here." She muttered, glaring at the walls.

I looked up at them. Cherry trees were painted all over the walls (as a Senior art student project) and the ceiling was painted along with it. I thought it made the building overly nauseating, as that much pink should make anyone want to vomit, but the art teachers, (whom were mostly hippies) thought it was the best thing they'd ever seen.

As we went through the in-wall displays of drawings and sculptures and other artsy stuff, I kept my eyes open for the blatant wall sign that spelled out ARENA in big bronze letters. Gale spotted the eyesore faster than I did, and we hurried toward it.

The arena was enormous. It was bigger than the gym, even though events rarely took place in here. The floor was made of some sort of rubbery material, and polished so thickly you could peel it off if you were persistent enough. There were dusty bleachers on either side of the large fighting space. Painted on the broad walls was an enormous cherry tree, and on the other side was a trio of pokemon. A chikorita, a cyndaquil, and a totodile were poised in confident stances, and under each of them were their pokedex numbers and names.

In the corner of the room was a large set of doors, one of which was slightly ajar, and light was pouring out of it. Upon closer inspection, we could hear muffled ruckus, and I gave Gale a cautious look. But nevertheless, we went through, and sure enough, a familiar pidgey was in the corner, bound and gagged. Droop was rolling around on the floor, cursing up a storm behind the gag he was wearing.

The other pokemon in cages were all fast asleep, either unaware or uninterested of the flailing pokemon on the floor. Droop noticed us, and he stopped flailing. He motioned us over, and I quickly unwrapped him from the bindings.

"FINALLY!" Droop shouted, free from the gag. "Do you know how long I've been waiting?"

"Obviously long enough to make me want to put that gag back on you." Gale muttered.

"Let's get the hell outta here. I'm very much ready to leave." Droop mumbled, ruffling his feathers.

As we left the room, Gale nudged me. "Was that there when we came in?" She asked curiously, pointing toward the large paintings.

"Of course they-" I paused. "Now that you mention it… I don't remember that Mismagius being there before…"

"Oh Mew… I'm getting horrid video game memories…" Droop muttered.

Sure enough, the doors to the Arena swung shut, and the painting rumbled. The mismagius disappeared into the bricks, and the lights slowly came on. "Congratulations, little bunny…"

The doors opened again, and we walked out, the familiar shattered glass doors and windows fixing themselves to crystal clear pexiglass panes, and opening to the cool, mid-spring night air.

I took the schedule off my ear. "It may have been a real bitch to get this… but now…"

"We can continue."

~OoO~

~OoO~

~OoO~

As I lamely said before…

I APOLOGIZE FOR BEING SO LATE! D; D; D; D;

I totally missed like, two of my deadlines. Remember back when I said It'd be done by now? Pssh. As if.

Hell, we missed Minus One's one-year anniversiary. Even One of my good friends on here had a good forty something more chapters than I did in one year. TT_TT

But if there's one way to solve this… It's that I need constant, CONSTANT pushing. PUSH ME! Punch me! Spam me for all I care! (oh, plz don't, I don't need any more viruses…) Anyway you can, the only way to make me update is to punish me into doing it! It's so difficult to do this alone… D:

And yea, I got in a good ten pages of microsoft word into this chapter. As most of you know, I only get in eight. So I hope you enjoyed them. I honestly don't know when my next chapter will show up… but hopefully it'll be faster than 5 months…


	16. End

…. Hello...

And you know what? Goodbye.

This really isn't fair of me, to only update like, twice a year, even though I have more than every capability to actually update more.

I don't have ANY inspiration to finish the story at all, and no plans to actually finish what I had started.

I'm sorry if you really did like this fic... I truly am, but I'd rather say now that you're not getting anything rather than hopeless dreams of this finishing.

Minus One in itself wasn't supposed to be very long. It was just supposed to be a quick story that was supposed to be finished within 20 or so chapters. Unfortunately, I didn't have the integrity to actually type out 160 consecutive pages MINIMUM to actually finish it.

Again, I'm sorry if you were looking for a proper ending, but there isn't one. I didn't have one thought out, and I can't sit down at this story for more than 10 minutes without thinking, "Wow. This sucks. My character is way too whiny."

I made this back when I was 14, and I'm going to stop it now, because my thoughts and feelings are much more different than what they used to be.

I don't expect reviews for this "chapter" but I thought it would be appreciated to know that it's not going to continue.

If you REALLY wanted to know what was going to happen, I couldn't tell you. Minus One's plot was made as I went through it, like carving out a pathway for itself, rather than coming up with a master plan and outline, and trying to get each chapter done according to it.

It was in shoddy shape, and it needed something to put it out of it's misery.

So, yeah. I apologize for the inconvenience, but Minus One is officially over.

~S H


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